Zhipan Feng, Shiying Lin, Andrew McDonagh* and Chen Yu* Pages 2681 - 2703 ( 23 )
Natural hydrogels are three-dimensional (3D) water-retaining materials with a skeleton consisting of natural polymers, their derivatives or mixtures. Natural hydrogels can provide sustained or controlled drug release and possess some unique properties of natural polymers, such as biodegradability, biocompatibility and some additional functions, such as CD44 targeting of hyaluronic acid. Natural hydrogels can be used with photosensitizers (PSs) in photodynamic therapy (PDT) to increase the range of applications. In the current review, the pertinent design variables are discussed along with a description of the categories of natural hydrogels available for PDT.
Photodynamic therapy, natural polymer, hydrogel, PDT, ROS, reactive oxygen species.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney NSW 2007, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081