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During the last decades, great efforts have been devoted to design polymers for reducing the toxicity, increasing the absorption, and improving the release profile of drugs. Advantage has been also taken from the inherent multivalency of polymers and dendrimers for the incorporation of diverse functional molecules of interest in targeting and diagnosis. In addition, polymeric hydrogels with the ability to encapsulate drugs and cells have been developed for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. In the long road to this successful story, pharmaceutical sciences have been accompanied by parallel advances in synthetic methodologies allowing the preparation of precise polymeric materials with enhanced properties. In this context, the introduction of the click concept by Sharpless and coworkers in 2001 focusing the attention on modularity and orthogonality has greatly benefited polymer synthesis, an area where reaction efficiency and product purity are significantly challenged. The purpose of this Expert Review is to discuss the impact of click chemistry in the preparation and functionalization of polymers, dendrimers, and hydrogels of interest in drug delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a pH sensitive semi-interpenetrating network (SIPN) hydrogel based on methacrylic acid, BSA, and PEG was prepared by UV initiated free radical polymerization. The swelling behavior and pH sensitivity of these hydrogels were studied in detail. With the increase in pH of the aqueous solution from 1.7 to 9.23, the swelling ratio of these hydrogels increased accordingly. The effect of BSA and crosslinker (BIS) content on the swelling behavior was more complicated, and the results were shown in the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]