Next-generation hydrogel dressings: Cargo for peptides, genes, nucleic acids, proteins, growth factors targeting...

Diabetic wounds (DW), a serious complication of diabetes mellitus that's characterized by chronic inflammation and persistent hyperglycemia. Hence, often resulting in infection, tissue necrosis and limb amputation. The underlying causes of impaired healing in DW include neuropathy, oxidative stress, vascular insufficiency and immune dysregulation that contribute to delayed tissue repair. Globally, there are more than 422 million adults with diabetes and around 15-25% of them are affected by DW in the course of their lives, a significant global health burden. Conventional therapies like infection control, wound debridement, often are limited in success due to their rapid degradation, poor solubility, poor permeability, and antibiotic resistance. Hydrogel based wound dressing has become promising candidates for DW treatment due to their three-dimensional hydrophilic polymeric networks for efficient moisture retention and for an optimal healing environment. Various types of hydrogels such as natural polymer, synthetic polymer and composite formulations have shown their therapeutic effectiveness in DW models. These materials can be designed to deliver therapeutic agents such as genes, peptides, miRNAs and nucleic acids. Therefore, regulate inflammation, stimulate angiogenesis and fight microbial infections, targeting various pathological features of DW at the same time. Additionally, present review emphasis on advanced hydrogel systems which are sensitive to stimuli such as pH, glucose and reactive oxygen species, are promising by virtue of their injectability, self-healing and biomolecule loading properties for improved biocompatibility and healing rate. As a result, hydrogel-based dressings are increasingly becoming prominent as integrative features in the next generation strategy of DW management.