Engineering self-assembling peptide hydrogels for localized therapeutic depots

Self-assembling peptide hydrogels represent an emerging class of biomaterials with unique physicochemical versatility and biocompatibility. These hydrogels have gained increasing attention for applications spanning tissue engineering, wound healing, antimicrobial therapy, cancer treatment, and regenerative medicine. Their modular structural design enables precise control of mechanical stiffness, porosity, degradation kinetics, and biochemical responsiveness, leading to finely tuned drug release profiles. Unlike conventional systemic delivery systems, localized peptide hydrogel depots can be administered directly at sites of disease—such as tumors, wounds, or implant interfaces—achieving high local drug concentrations while mitigating systemic toxicity. Despite these advantages, critical challenges remain in understanding and optimizing their molecular assembly, long-term biostability, and translation to clinical-scale manufacturing.Addressing these challenges is key to advancing localized therapeutic delivery. Many potent therapeutic molecules—including anticancer drugs, antimicrobial agents, immunomodulators, and peptide-based biologics—suffer from rapid clearance, limited bioavailability, or off-target toxicity. Peptide hydrogels offer a bioengineered platform to overcome these limitations through controlled self-assembly, structural tunability, and bioresponsiveness. This Research Topic aims to showcase current advances in material design, structure–function relationships, performance characterization, and translational strategies of peptide hydrogels used as depot systems for localized and controlled drug delivery. It further seeks to bridge the fields of biomaterial science, pharmaceutics, and translational bioengineering to expand their potential in therapeutic applications.To gather further insights into the design, characterization, and functional application of peptide hydrogel biomaterials for localized therapeutics, we welcome articles addressing—but not limited to—the following themes:- Self-assembling and stimuli-responsive peptide hydrogels- Injectable and in situ-forming hydrogel depots- Structure–property–function relationships in peptide-based biomaterials- Controlled and sustained release of therapeutic agents- Rheological behavior, injectability, retention, and biodegradation analysis- Hemolysis, cytotoxicity, and biocompatibility evaluations- Applications in tumor therapy, antimicrobial treatment, wound healing, and regenerative medicine- Translational, manufacturing, and regulatory considerations in hydrogel-based therapeuticsArticle types welcomed: Original Research, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Perspectives, Methods, and Brief Research Reports. Topic editors: Dennis Douroumis, Yiannis Sarigiannis, MOHAMED ELSAWY Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81199/engineering-self-assembling-peptide-hydrogels-for-localized-therapeutic-depots