Recent Advances in Smart Self-Assembled Bio-inspired Hydrogels: A Bridging Weapon for Emerging Health Care Applications from Bench to Bedside.

Stimuli-responsive low molecular weight hydrogel interventions for Biomedical challenges are a rapidly evolving paradigm in the bottom-up approach in recent years. Peptide-based self-assembled nano biomaterials present safer alternatives to their non-degradable counterparts as they are amalgamated with unique properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, tunable macromolecular structure, adjustable mechanical integrity, and many more, as demanded for today's most urged clinical needs. Although a plethora of work has already been accomplished and significant progress has been realized using these platforms, programming hydrogelators with appropriate functionalities requires a better understanding as the impact of the macromolecular structure of the peptides and subsequently, their self-assembled nanostructures remain highly unidentified. As such this review focuses on two different aspects: Firstly, the underlying guidelines and principles for building multi-faceted biomimetic strategies to tailor scaffolds that would lead to hydrogelation, taking into consideration a set of several N-terminus protecting groups/amphiphiles and their utility along with the overview of the role of non-covalent interactions that are the key components of various self-assembly processes. In the second section, we aim to bring together how incorporating nature-inspired properties into hydrogels, we are successful in bringing to the forefront, the recent achievements with designer assembly contributed by scientists and ours, concerning their self-aggregation behaviour and applications mainly in the biomedical arena like drug delivery carrier design, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory as well as wound healing materials. Furthermore, we anticipate that this article will provide a conceptual demonstration of the different approaches taken towards the construction of these task-specific designer hydrogels. Finally, a collective effort among the material scientists is required to pave the path for the entrance of these intelligent materials into personalized medicine from bench to bedside. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.