In Washington, University of Washington scientists built and tested a new biomaterial-based hydrogel delivery system that will encase a desired cargo, like drug treatments, and dissolve to release it only when specific physiological conditions are met. This could help avoid harming healthy cells with current drug treatments that aim for tumors and pathogens but also harm nearby healthy cells.
The environmental cues could include the presence of an enzyme or even the acidic conditions that could be found in a tumor microenvironment. Critically, the triggers that cause dissolution of the hydrogel can be switched out easily in the synthesis process, allowing researchers to create many different packages that open up in response to unique combinations of environmental cues.
Hydrogels are more than 90 percent water; the remainder consists of networks of biochemical polymers. Hydrogels can be engineered to ferry a variety of therapeutics, such as pharmaceutical products, special cells or signaling molecules, for purposes including drug delivery or even 3-D tissue engineering for transplantation into patients.