Engineering a proper immune response following biomaterial implantation is essential to bone tissue regeneration. Herein, a biomimetically hierarchical scaffold composed of deferoxamine@poly(ε‐caprolactone) nanoparticles (DFO@PCL NPs), manganese carbonyl (MnCO) nanosheets, gelatin methacryloyl hydrogel, and a polylactide/hydroxyapatite (HA) matrix is fabricated to augment bone repair by facilitating the balance of the immune system and bone metabolism. First, a 3D printed stiff scaffold with a well‐organized gradient structure mimics the cortical and cancellous bone tissues; meanwhile, an inside infusion of a soft hydrogel further endows the scaffold with characteristics of the extracellular matrix. A Fenton‐like reaction between MnCO and endogenous hydrogen peroxide generated at the implant‐tissue site triggers continuous release of carbon monoxide and Mn2+, thus significantly lessening inflammatory response by upregulating the M2 phenotype of macrophages, which also secretes vascular endothelial growth factor to induce vascular formation. Through activating the hypoxia‐inducible factor‐1α pathway, Mn2+ and DFO@PCL NP further promote angiogenesis. Moreover, DFO inhibits osteoclast differentiation and synergistically collaborates with the osteoinductive activity of HA. Based on amounts of data in vitro and in vivo, strong immunomodulatory, intensive angiogenic, weak osteoclastogenic, and superior osteogenic abilities of such an osteoimmunity‐regulating scaffold present a profound effect on improving bone regeneration, which puts forward a worthy base and positive enlightenment for large‐scale bone defect repair.
We
developed dual biologically responsive nanogapped gold nanoparticle
vesicles loaded with immune inhibitor and carrying an anticancer polymeric
prodrug for synergistic concurrent chemo-immunotherapy against primary
and metastatic tumors, along with guided cargo release by photoacoustic
(PA) imaging in the second near-infrared (NIR-II) window. The responsive
vesicle was prepared by self-assembly of nanogapped gold nanoparticles
(AuNNPs) grafted with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and dual pH/GSH-responsive
polyprodug poly(SN38-co-4-vinylpyridine)
(termed AuNNP@PEG/PSN38VP), showing intense PA signal in
the NIR-II window. The effect of the rigidity of hydrophobic polymer
PSN38VP on the assembled structures and the formation mechanism
of AuNNP@SN38 Ve were elucidated by computational simulations.
The immune inhibitor BLZ-945 was encapsulated into the vesicles, resulting
in pH-responsive release of BLZ-945 for targeted immunotherapy, followed
by the dissociation of the vesicles into single AuNNP@PEG/PSN38VP. The hydrophilic AuNNP@PEG/PSN38VP nanoparticles
could penetrate deep into the tumor tissues and release the anticancer
drug SN38 under the reductive environment. A PA signal
in the NIR-II window in the deep tumor region was obtained. The BLZ-945-loaded
vesicle enabled enhanced PA imaging-guided concurrent chemo-immunotherapy
efficacy, inhibiting the growth of both primary tumors and metastatic
tumors.
Smart assemblies have attracted increased interest in various areas, especially in developing novel stimuli-responsive theranostics. Herein, commercially available, natural tannic acid (TA) and iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe O NPs) are utilized as models to construct smart magnetic assemblies based on polyphenol-inspired NPs-phenolic self-assembly between NPs and TA. Interestingly, the magnetic assemblies can be specially disassembled by adenosine triphosphate, which shows a stronger affinity to Fe O NPs than that of TA and partly replaces the surface coordinated TA. The disassembly can further be facilitated by the acidic environment hence causing the remarkable change of the transverse relaxivity and potent "turn-on" of fluorescence (FL) signals. Therefore, the assemblies for specific and sensitive tumor magnetic resonance and FL dual-modal imaging and photothermal therapy after intravenous injection of the assemblies are successfully employed. This work not only provides understandings on the self-assembly between NPs and polyphenols, but also will open new insights for facilely constructing versatile assemblies and extending their biomedical applications.
Bone Repair
In article number 2202044, Jiayong Dai, Jianxun Ding, Huanghao Yang, and co‐workers develop an osteoimmunity‐regulating biomimetically hierarchical scaffold to improve large‐scale bone‐defect regene ration through alleviating inflammation, enhancing neovascularization, stimulating osteogenesis, and inhibiting osteoclasts, facilitating the balance of the immune system and bone metabolism and augmenting bone repair.
Conventional photosensitizer-based photodynamic therapy is triggered by UV-light irradiation and depends on oxygen. However, it is hard to be applied to the deep and hypoxic tumor. To address this issue, we reported a new kind of g-C 3 N 4 nanosheet decorated with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), which could generate a high amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) under a 670 nm laser irradiation in an oxygen-free environment. This synthesized semiconductor−metal heterojunction served as a superior photodynamic agent, showing prominent cancer cell-killing and tumor growth-suppressing effects in the presence of a 670 nm light and g-C 3 N 4 − AuNP composites, and its excellent ROS generation property was also validated by further bactericidal experiment.
Inflammatory responses of nucleus pulposus (NP) can induce imbalanced anabolism and catabolism of extracellular matrix, and the cytosolic dsDNA accumulation and STING–NF–κB pathway activation found in NP inflammation are considered as fairly important cause of intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration. Herein, we constructed a siSTING delivery hydrogel of aldehyde hyaluronic acid (HA-CHO) and poly(amidoamine) PAMAM/siRNA complex to intervene the abnormal STING signal for IVD degeneration treatment, where the formation of dynamic Schiff base bonds in the system (siSTING@HP
gel
) was able to overcome the shortcomings such as low cellular uptake, short half-life, and rapid degradation of siRNA-based strategy. PAMAM not only formed complexes with siRNA to promote siRNA transfection, but also served as dynamic crosslinker to construct hydrogel, and the injectable and self-healing hydrogel efficiently and steadily silenced STING expression in NP cells. Finally, the siSTING@HP
gel
significantly eased IVD inflammation and slowed IVD degeneration by prolonging STING knockdown in puncture-induced IVD degeneration rat model, revealing that STING pathway was a therapeutic target for IVD degeneration and such novel hydrogel had great potential for being applied to many other diseases for gene delivery.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.