The development of low-molecular weight hydrogels for applications in cancer therapy.
Nanoscale
; 6(7): 3474-82, 2014 Apr 07.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-24548933
ABSTRACT
To improve the anti-cancer efficacy and to counteract the side effects of chemotherapy, a variety of drug delivery systems have been invented in past decades, but few of these systems have succeeded in clinical trials due to their respective inherent shortcomings. Recently, low-molecular weight hydrogels of peptides that self-assemble via non-covalent interactions have attracted considerable attention due to their good biocompatibility, low toxicity, inherent biodegradability as well as their convenience of design. Low-molecular weight hydrogels have already shown promise in biomedical applications as diverse as 3D-cell culture, enzyme immobilization, controllable MSC differentiation, wound healing, drug delivery etc. Here we review the recent development in the use of low-molecular weight hydrogels for cancer therapy, which may be helpful in the design of soft materials for drug delivery.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Biocompatible Materials
/
Hydrogels
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Nanoscale
Year:
2014
Type:
Article