Alginate is a biopolymer used in a variety of biomedical applications due to its favourable properties, such as biocompatibility and non-toxicity. It has been particularly attractive in wound healing applications to date. It can be tailored to materials with properties suitable for wound healing. Alginate has been used to prepare different forms of materials for wound dressings, such as hydrogels, films, wafers, foams, nanofibres, and in topical formulations. The wound dressings prepared from alginate are able to absorb excess wound fluid, maintain a physiologically moist environment, and minimize bacterial infections at the wound site. The therapeutic efficacy of these wound dressings is influenced by the ratio of other polymers used in combination with alginate, the nature of cross linkers used, the time of crosslinking, nature of excipients used, the incorporation of nanoparticles, and antibacterial agents. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the different forms of wound dressings containing alginate, in vitro, and in vivo results.

Cancer is a chronic disease that is responsible for the high death rate, globally. The administration of anticancer drugs is one crucial approach that is employed for the treatment of cancer, although its therapeutic status is not presently satisfactory. The anticancer drugs are limited pharmacologically, resulting from the serious side effects, which could be life-threatening. Polymer drug conjugates, nano-based drug delivery systems can be utilized to protect normal body tissues from the adverse side effects of anticancer drugs and also to overcome drug resistance. They transport therapeutic agents to the target cell/tissue. This review article is based on the therapeutic outcomes of polymer-drug conjugates against breast and lung cancer.

The treatment of wounds is expensive and challenging. Most of the available wound dressings are not effective and suffer from limitations such as poor antimicrobial activity, toxicity, inability to provide suitable moisture to the wound and poor mechanical performance. The use of inappropriate wound dressings can result in a delayed wound healing process. Nanosize range scaffolds have triggered great attention because of their attractive properties, which include their capability to deliver bioactive agents, high surface area, improved mechanical properties, mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM), and high porosity. Nanofibrous materials can be further encapsulated/loaded with metal-based nanoparticles to enhance their therapeutic outcomes in wound healing applications. The widely studied metal-based nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles exhibit good properties such as outstanding antibacterial activity, display antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties, support cell growth, making it an essential bioactive agent in wound dressings. This review article reports the biological (in vivo and in vitro) and mechanical outcomes of nanofibrous scaffolds loaded with silver nanoparticles on wound healing.

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Bacterial infections are serious complications associated with wounds. Wounds can become chronic due to bacterial infections. In this research, lyophilized wound dressings were prepared from poloxamer, pluronic, mastic gum, and gum acacia. The wound dressings were loaded with metal‐based nanoparticles and carbon‐based materials. They exhibited effective antibacterial activity, water‐soluble, biodegradable with the capability to absorb large amounts of wound exudates. The bandages were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy/energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and transmission electron microscopy followed by porosity and water uptake. TEM confirmed the successful incorporation of the metal‐based NPs and carbon‐based materials into the wound dressings. The TGA confirmed that the wound dressings are thermally stable. The wound dressings were also characterized by a high uptake of water to form a gel which was soluble in water indicating their useful application for wounds with large wound exudate, sensitive and damaged skin. The unique properties of the wound dressings indicate that they are potential materials for the treatment of chronic wounds in patients with sensitive skin. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48728.