Research progress and potential application in oral cavity of hydrogel-based probiotic delivery systems

Abstract:

Probiotics can improve the microbiota of human oral cavity, gastrointestinal tract, skin, and vagina and reach the targets via delivery systems for preventive and therapeutic purposes. Hydrogel is currently accepted as the most common carrier of delivery systems. The recent studies aiming at improving hydrogel materials mainly focus on matrix structure, bulking agents, and external coating. The novel hydrogel contributes to the adaptation of probiotics to the processing and storage environment, as well as human body microenvironment. Probiotics have varying requirements for delivery carriers in different human microenvironments. The specific characteristics of the oral microenvironment pose a new challenge to the colonization of probiotics, to which hydrogel may be a solution. The application of hydrogel will expedite the course of clinical research and pharmaceutical development of oral probiotics.