Medical Applications of Hydrogels in Skin Infections: A Review

Abstract

Skin infections are common diseases for which patients seek inpatient and outpatient medical care. Globally, an increasing number of people are affected by skin infections that could lead to physical and psychological damage. Skin infections always have a broad spectrum of clinical presentations that require physicians to make an aggressive and accurate diagnosis for prescribing the proper symptomatic antimicrobials. In most instances, the treatment for skin infections mainly includes oral or topical anti-infective drugs. However, some of the classical anti-infective drugs have limitations, such as poor water solubility, low bioavailability, and poor targeting efficiency, which can lead to poor efficacy, adverse effects, and drug resistance. Therefore, research priorities should focus on the development of more effective drug delivery systems with new materials. Hydrogels are a highly multifunctional class of medical materials with potential applications in dermatology. Several hydrogel dressings with anti-infective functions have been formulated and demonstrated to improve the efficacy and tolerance of oral or topical classical anti-infective drugs to a certain degree. In this study, the medical applications of hydrogels for the treatment of various skin infections are systematically reviewed to provide an important theoretical reference for future research studies on the treatment options for skin infections.

Gellan-Based Hydrogel as a Drug Delivery System for Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester in the Treatment of Oral Candida albicans Infections

“…The prolonged release capacity of CAPE-GG at 1% can increase the antifungal action time and improve the drug targeting. Consequently, CAPE can be more effective in causing damage to fungal cells, raising the possibility of applying these hydrogels to treat several buccal manifestations of Candida infections [ 54 , 55 , 56 ], including pseudomembranous, erythematous, and hyperplastic candidiasis.…”

Polymeric Nanohydrogel in Topical Drug Delivery System

“… 3 , 44 Unlike topical drug delivery, where the goal is to target local tissues, transdermal delivery is designed to deliver drugs systemically, bypassing the first-pass metabolism that occurs with oral administration. In the administration of topical drugs, Fick’s second law governs drug absorption in the SC 45 Fick’s second law describes the diffusion of a substance (in this case, the drug) through a medium (the SC) over time. To improve medication formulations and achieve the intended therapeutic effects, knowing how quickly and how much a drug is absorbed via the skin is crucial information.…”

Review on nanogels and their applications on dermal therapy

“…For most skin related diseases, some of challenges faced by the drugs currently in use is water insolubility, low transdermal capacity, low drug bioavailability, skin permeability that can contribute to poor therapeutic efficacy. 150 In accelerating the pharmaceutical and medical development through technology, nanogels have shown an interesting potential in a vast spectrum of disease. For dermal therapy nanogels are studied against Bacterial, Fungal, Viral, and Parasitic Skin Infections.…”