Why in news
Researchers from IIT-Guwahati and Bose Institute, Kolkata developed an advanced injectable hydrogel for localized cancer treatment.
The hydrogel acts as a stable reservoir for anti-cancer drugs, releasing them in a controlled manner at the tumor site while protecting healthy cells.
Significance
Traditional treatments like chemotherapy have significant side effects, affecting both cancerous and healthy cells.
The hydrogel delivers drugs directly to the tumor, ensuring treatment is focused and minimizes systemic side effects.
Made of ultra-short peptides, the hydrogel remains insoluble in biological fluids, ensuring it stays localized at the injection site.
The hydrogel responds to elevated levels of glutathione (GSH), which is abundant in tumor cells, ensuring targeted drug delivery.
Hydrogel
A hydrogel is a biphasic material, a mixture of porous, permeable solids and at least 10% by weight or volume of interstitial fluid composed completely or mainly by water.
In hydrogels the porous permeable solid is a water insoluble three dimensional network of natural or synthetic polymers and a fluid, having absorbed a large amount of water or biological fluids.
These properties underpin several applications, especially in the biomedical area.
Hydrogels were introduced for biological use in 1960
It is a “smart” material that can change its structure in response to its environment, such as the local temperature, pH, salt or water concentration
Natural Hydrogels including silk fibroin, hyaluronic acid, alginate, and chitosan are obtained from tissues.
Properties of Hydrogels : biocompatibility, biodegradability, low cytotoxicity, ability to tailor the hydrogel into an injectable gel, and similarity to physiological environments.
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