Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging Functional Hydrogel Delivers Procyanidins for the Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury in Mice

Xuyang Huang; Yongqing Ye; Jianyong Zhang; Xuefeng Zhang; Hongwei Ma; Yongkang Zhang; Xianhua Fu; JiaJia Tang; Ning Jiang; Yuhan Han; Hongmei Liu; Honglin Chen

doi:10.1021/acsami.2c04930

Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging Functional Hydrogel Delivers Procyanidins for the Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury in Mice

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Jul 14. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c04930. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Xuyang Huang^{1

2}, Yongqing Ye^{1

2}, Jianyong Zhang¹, Xuefeng Zhang², Hongwei Ma², Yongkang Zhang², Xianhua Fu¹, JiaJia Tang¹, Ning Jiang³, Yuhan Han¹, Hongmei Liu⁴, Honglin Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurosurgery, The Suqian Clinical College of Xuzhou Medical University, Jiangsu University, Suqian 223800, People's Republic of China.
² Institute of Nervous System Diseases, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221002, People's Republic of China.
³ The Suqian Clinical College of Xuzhou Medical University, Jiangsu University, Suqian 223800, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Guangdong 518055, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 35833273
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c04930

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is accompanied by the overload of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can result in secondary brain injury. Although procyanidins (PCs) have a powerful free radical scavenging capability and have been widely studied in the treatment of TBI, conventional systemic drug therapy cannot make the drug reach the targeted area in the early stage of TBI and will cause systemic side effects because of the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). To address this tissue, we designed and fabricated a ROS-scavenging functional hydrogel loaded PC (GelMA-PPS/PC) to deliver the drug by responding to the traumatic microenvironment. In situ injection of the GelMA-PPS/PC hydrogel effectively avoided the BBB and was directly applied to the surface of brain tissue to target the traumatic area. Hydrophobic poly(propylene sulfide)₆₀ (PPS₆₀), an ROS quencher and H₂O₂-responsive substance, was covalently bound to GelMA and exposed in response to the trauma microenvironment. At the same time, the H₂O₂ response of PPS₆₀ further caused the structure of the hydrogel to degrade and release the encapsulated PC. Then PC could regulate the oxidative stress response in the cells and synergistically deplete ROS to play a neurotrophic protective role. This work suggests a novel method for the treatment of secondary brain injury by inhibiting the oxidative stress response after TBI.

Keywords: ROS scavenger; brain protection; functional hydrogel; procyanidins; traumatic brain injury.