A Gas Therapy Strategy for Intestinal Flora Regulation and Colitis Treatment by Nanogel‐Based Multistage NO Delivery Microcapsules

Abstract

Current approaches to treating inflammatory bowel disease focus on the suppression of overactive immune responses, the removal of reactive intestinal oxygen species, and regulation of the intestinal flora. However, owing to the complex structure of the gastrointestinal tract and the influence of mucus, current small‐molecule and biologic‐based drugs for treating colitis cannot effectively act at the site of colon inflammation, and as a result, they tend to exhibit low efficacies and toxic side effects. In this study, nanogel‐based multistage NO delivery microcapsules are developed to achieve NO release at the inflammation site by targeting the inflammatory tissues using the nanogel. Surprisingly, oral administration of the microcapsules suppresses the growth of pathogenic bacteria and increase the abundance of probiotic bacteria. Metabolomics further show that an increased abundance of intestinal probiotics promotes the production of metabolites, including short‐chain fatty acids and indole derivatives, which modulate the intestinal immunity and restore the intestinal barrier via the interleukin‐17 and PI3K‐Akt signaling pathways. This work reveals that the developed gas therapy strategy based on multistage NO delivery microcapsules modulates the intestinal microbial balance, thereby reducing inflammation and promoting intestinal barrier repair, ultimately providing a new therapeutic approach for the clinical management of colitis.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Hydrogel microrobots for biomedical applications

“…(C) Schematic illustrations of composition, release, drug delivery, and operational principle of the oral magneto-responsive microneedle robots ( Zhang et al, 2021 ). (D) Preparation of P@G@NG microcapsules ( Fu et al, 2024 ). (A) Copyright © 2019, The American Association for the Advancement of Science (B) Copyright © 2022 Elsevier (B) V. All rights reserved.…”

“…Yang et al introduced a novel gas therapy approach for treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), focusing on mitigating inflammation through the modulation of intestinal microbiota ( Fu et al, 2024 ). This approach centers on the creation of a nanogel-based, multi-stage nitric oxide (NO) delivery system designed to target inflamed tissues precisely, enabling site-specific NO release.…”