Stimulus responsive nanogels for drug delivery

Abstract

Nanogels have attracted growing interest in the last five decades owing to their potential for biomedical applications, including drug delivery systems and bioimaging. They are able to encapsulate highly amounts of biologically active agents such as drugs, proteins, and genetic material inside the polymer networks and release them in a controlled manner. Internal and external microenvironmental such as pH, ionic force, magnetic field, temperature, enzyme, glucose, redox potential, light, or a combination of them, can stimuli the response of nanogels and are useful for the controlled release of bioactive compounds. This chapter aims to cover the main features regarding the most outstanding contributions in the area of drug delivery from stimulus responsive nanogels. The recent advances in their main biomedical applications and physicochemical attributes for potential application of nanogels in cancer treatment will be highlighted.