Table 2.

Summary of the DDS applications, advantages, and disadvantages associated with the peptide-based hydrogels loaded with inorganic nanoparticles. The disadvantages can be transversal to other composites [50].

Hydrogel-Inorganic Nanoparticle Composite	Advantages	Disadvantages
Iron oxide magnetic NPs [69,70,71]	Synergy with magnetic hyperthermia Magnetoresponse MRI contrast	Requires screening functionalization to achieve co-assembly
Gold/silver NPs [72]	Low-cost sensors Synthesis in situ Facile synthesis and tunability Synergy with photothermia /photodynamic therapy	Heterogeneous dispersion Uncontrolled release Challenging reproducibility of in situ synthesis