REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
This article is part of the Research TopicPromising Photosensitive Agents for Photodynamic TherapyView all 19 articles
Preparation and biomedical application of light-responsive hydrogels based on natural products
Provisionally accepted
- 1West Anhui University, Lu'an, China
- 2Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College Institute of Radiation Medicine, Tianjin, China
- 3Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, China
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This article systematically reviews the light-responsive hydrogels based on natural products, with a focus on their extensive applications in the field of biomedicine. Regarding the preparation methods, the article elaborates on the physical self-assembly, chemical crosslinking agent method, photocrosslinking method, and free radical polymerization method. The biomedical application section introduces their applications in drug release and wound healing based on the mechanisms of photochemical reactions, photoisomerization reactions, and photothermal reactions. In terms of quality evaluation frameworks, the natural light-responsive hydrogels evaluation frameworks is summarized, and the shortcomings of the existing evaluation frameworks are analyzed. Finally, the article summarizes its application potential and development bottlenecks, looks forward to future research directions, and proposes targeted development suggestions, thereby promoting its wider applications in deep disease treatment and personalized medicine.
Keywords: Fundamental characteristics, Natural Products, light-responsive hydrogels, physicaland chemical crosslinking, biomedical applications, quality evaluation frameworks
Received: 28 Sep 2025; Accepted: 13 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fan, Shang, Ji, Ma and Liao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Shitang Ma, mast@ahstu.edu.cn
Maoliang Liao, liaomaoliang@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.