College of Animal Science and Technology, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Animal Breeding, Disease Control and Prevention, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China.
Institute of Medical Sciences, The Second Hospital and Shandong University Center for Orthopaedics, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250033, China.
Adv Healthc Mater. 2024 Jul;13(19):e2400071. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202400071. Epub 2024 Mar 26.
The treatment of infected wounds remains a challenging biomedical problem. Some bioactive small-molecule hydrogelators with unique rigid structures can self-assemble into supramolecular hydrogels for wound healing. However, they are still suffered from low structural stability and bio-functionality. Herein, a supramolecular hydrogel antibacterial dressing with a dual nanofibrillar network structure is proposed. A nanofibrillar network created by a small-molecule hydrogelator, puerarin extracted from the traditional Chinese medicine Pueraria, is interconnected with a secondary macromolecular silk fibroin nanofibrillar network induced by Ga ions via charge-induced supramolecular self-assembly. The resulting hydrogel features adequate mechanical strength for sustainable retention at wounds. Good biocompatibility and efficient bacterial inhibition are obtained when the Ga ion concentration is 0.05%. Otherwise, the substantial release of Ga ions and puerarin endows the hydrogel with excellent hemostatic and antioxidative properties. In vivo, evaluation of a mouse-infected wound model demonstrates that its healing effect outperformed that of a commercially available silver-containing wound dressing. The experimental group successfully achieves a 100% wound closure rate on day 10. This study sheds new light on the design of nanofibrillar hydrogels based on supramolecular self-assembly of naturally derived bioactive molecules as well as their clinical use for treating chronic infected wounds.
感染性伤口的治疗仍然是一个具有挑战性的生物医学问题。一些具有独特刚性结构的生物活性小分子水凝胶剂可以自组装成超分子水凝胶，用于伤口愈合。然而，它们仍然存在结构稳定性和生物功能低的问题。本文提出了一种具有双重纳米纤维网络结构的超分子水凝胶抗菌敷料。一种纳米纤维网络由小分子水凝胶剂葛根素（从中药葛根中提取）创建，通过 Ga 离子的电荷诱导超分子自组装与二次大分子丝素纳米纤维网络相互连接。所得水凝胶具有足够的机械强度，可以在伤口处持续保留。当 Ga 离子浓度为 0.05%时，可获得良好的生物相容性和高效的抑菌效果。否则，Ga 离子和葛根素的大量释放赋予水凝胶优异的止血和抗氧化性能。在体内，对小鼠感染性伤口模型的评估表明，其愈合效果优于市售含银伤口敷料。实验组在第 10 天成功实现了 100%的伤口闭合率。本研究为基于天然生物活性分子的超分子自组装设计纳米纤维水凝胶及其在治疗慢性感染性伤口方面的临床应用提供了新的思路。
