ABSTRACT
Recent research has focused on pulmonary drug delivery as an alternative route of administration for the treatment of different pulmonary diseases as well as others. The pharmaceutical trend has recently been toward pulmonary delivery because of its low metabolic activity, large surface area, high vascularity, and avoidance of hepatic bypass metabolism. Recently, particulate-based drug delivery systems have emerged as innovative and promising approaches for pulmonary delivery. Several particulate-based drug delivery systems have demonstrated a great potential in pulmonary delivery due to their tremendous advantages such as overcoming pulmonary delivery barriers, providing a controlled drug release and increasing therapeutic efficiency which result in reducing dose frequency and adverse side effects. Among different particulate-based drug delivery systems, hydrogels, 3D polymeric networks, have recently been employed and investigated as drug carriers for pulmonary delivery owing to their unique physicochemical properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, swelling and mucoadhesive properties. This chapter provides an overview on hydrogels including synthesis methods, 328properties, and different types of hydrogels used in the drug delivery to/through the lung. Moreover, it highlights the advantages, current applications and concerns of hydrogels in pulmonary drug delivery.
