Exploring the Potential of Nanogels: From Drug Carriers to Radiopharmaceutical Agents

Overview

Journal Adv Healthc Mater

Specialties Biomedical Engineering
Biotechnology

Date 2023 Sep 17

PMID 37717209

Authors

Manja Kubeil

Yota Suzuki

Maria Antonietta Casulli

Rozy Kamal

Takeshi Hashimoto

Michael Bachmann

Takashi Hayashita

Holger Stephan

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Nanogels open up access to a wide range of applications and offer among others hopeful approaches for use in the field of biomedicine. This review provides a brief overview of current developments of nanogels in general, particularly in the fields of drug delivery, therapeutic applications, tissue engineering, and sensor systems. Specifically, cyclodextrin (CD)-based nanogels are important because they have exceptional complexation properties and are highly biocompatible. Nanogels as a whole and CD-based nanogels in particular can be customized in a wide range of sizes and equipped with a desired surface charge as well as containing additional molecules inside and outside, such as dyes, solubility-mediating groups or even biological vector molecules for pharmaceutical targeting. Currently, biological investigations are mainly carried out in vitro, but more and more in vivo applications are gaining importance. Modern molecular imaging methods are increasingly being used for the latter. Due to an extremely high sensitivity and the possibility of obtaining quantitative data on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, nuclear methods such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) using radiolabeled compounds are particularly suitable here. The use of radiolabeled nanogels for imaging, but also for therapy, is being discussed.

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