Center for Self-Assembly and Complexity, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea.
Department of Chemistry, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea.
Adv Mater. 2017 Nov;29(44). doi: 10.1002/adma.201702859. Epub 2017 Oct 11.
Nitric oxide (NO) is a crucial signaling molecule with various functions in physiological systems. Due to its potent biological effect, the preparation of responsive biomaterials upon NO having temporally transient properties is a challenging task. This study represents the first therapeutic-gas (i.e., NO)-responsive hydrogel by incorporating a NO-cleavable crosslinker. The hydrogel is rapidly swollen in response to NO, and not to other gases. Furthermore, the NO-responsive gel is converted to enzyme-responsive gels by cascade reactions from an enzyme to NO production for which the NO precursor is a substrate of the enzyme. The application of the hydrogel as a NO-responsive drug-delivery system is proved here by revealing effective protein drug release by NO infusion, and the hydrogel is also shown to be swollen by the NO secreted from the cultured cells. The NO-responsive hydrogel may prove useful in many applications, for example drug-delivery vehicles, inflammation modulators, and as a tissue scaffold.
一氧化氮（NO）是一种在生理系统中具有多种功能的关键信号分子。由于其强大的生物学效应，制备具有时间瞬变特性的响应性生物材料是一项具有挑战性的任务。本研究通过引入可断裂 NO 的交联剂，首次制备了治疗性气体（即 NO）响应水凝胶。水凝胶可快速响应 NO 而不是其他气体发生溶胀。此外，NO 响应凝胶通过级联反应从酶转化为酶响应凝胶，其中酶将 NO 前体作为酶的底物产生 NO。通过 NO 输注揭示有效的蛋白质药物释放，证明了水凝胶作为 NO 响应药物递送系统的应用，并且还显示出由培养细胞分泌的 NO 使水凝胶溶胀。NO 响应水凝胶在许多应用中可能非常有用，例如药物递送载体、炎症调节剂和组织支架。
