Fabrication and biomedical potential of nanogels: An overview

Nanogels are one of the innovative hydrogel systems that comprise cross-linked polymers of natural or synthetic origin having good water holding capacity. The hydrophilic nature of nanogels possess good water uptake and exhibit controlled, targeted and sustained release. Nanogels show promising features like high biodegradability, biocompatibility, drug loading capacity and good penetration power. This overview mainly focuses on the biomedical applications of nanogels as the drug delivery system, imaging agent, therapeutic carrier, theranostic agent, also its fabrication techniques. In current scenario, nanogels play promising roles to deliver drugs such as anticancer, autoimmune, ophthalmics, anti-microbials, anti-inflammatory, proteins and peptides.