Research progress of injectable in situ hydrogel embolic agents / 药学学报

ABSTRACT

Embolotherapy is a common method for clinical intervention in the treatment of diseases including aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations and solid tumors, and embolic agents are a decisive factor affecting the effect of embolization. Although various embolic agents like coils, microspheres, and Onyx have been used clinically, there are still some treatment limitations: such as weak blood vessel penetration, easy to aggregate, poor mechanical properties, adhesion to catheters, and the need for toxic solvents (e.g. dimethyl sulfoxide). In recent years, a number of studies have found that in situ hydrogels have good application prospects in the field of vascular embolization. When low viscosity precursor solution is injected into the targeted blood vessel via microcatheters, it will undergo a sol-gel transition through physical and/or chemical cross-linking to form hydrogel to block blood flow. In addition, these in situ hydrogels can load drugs by pore embedding, electrostatic interaction, chemical bonding, etc., and have excellent sustained-release properties. This review summarizes the research progress of injectable in situ hydrogel vascular embolic agents in the past ten years, with a view to provide references for the development of new embolic agents in the future.