HONG KONG SAR – OutReach Media – August 31, 2023 – Researchers from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), HKU-Shenzhen Hospital and Princeton University have collaborated to achieve a breakthrough in the development of injectable hydrogels, a highly effective method of drug delivery . Their innovative product, Fibro-Gel, offers many advantages over existing hydrogels and has promising applications in wound healing.
Figure 1. The manufacture of Fibro-gel. The material containing the molecules of a drug, a photoinitiator (LAP) and a polymer (PEGDA) is extracted through a microscopic nozzle to form a microfiber which is cut to the specified length (Lfiber) by a pulse of UV light. (Image is reproduced under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. © 2023 Shen et al. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)
Injectable hydrogel administration is a very effective method of drug delivery. A medication is incorporated into a soft gel which is then injected directly where it is needed. Another advantage of this method is that the gel releases the medication gradually, allowing better and more precise control of the medication dosage.
Injectable hydrogels have many applications: from cancer treatment where they can deliver drugs directly to tumors, to diabetes treatment, to human tissue regeneration and chronic pain management. They are particularly suitable for treating wounds, including burns and surgical sites. Hydrogels can deliver growth factors, antibiotics or anti-inflammatory drugs directly to the wound, aiding the healing process.
However, the development of hydrogels has encountered challenges, such as high production cost, difficulty in scaling, and risk of adverse effects in patients. The Fibro-Gel, created by the research team led by Professor Anderson Ho Cheung Shum from HKU’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, in collaboration with two groups of collaborators – Professor Michael To’s team from HKU Hospital University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen and the group of Professor Howard Stone and Dr. Janine Nunes from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University are addressing these questions.
Fibro-Gel is made by squeezing a polymer containing the required drug molecules, through a narrow channel (much like toothpaste squeezed from a tube), and breaking up the microfibers using a pulse of ultraviolet light.
What sets Fibro-Gel apart from existing hydrogels is that it is solely water-based, without the use of oils, making it more biocompatible, more stable and cheaper to manufacture. In addition, Fibro-Gel is biomimetic: it reproduces the properties of biological materials, such as the tissues into which it is injected, which avoids unwanted reactions. As a result, Fibro-Gel heals wounds faster because it promotes vascularization – the formation of new blood vessels, which plays a crucial role in wound healing.
A revolutionary feature of Fibro-Gel is that it allows the use of different drugs in the same gel, thus allowing the timing of their release to be controlled and adjusted. This is very important because the healing and tissue regeneration processes consist of a sequence of different steps that require the administration of specific growth factors and drugs.
Finally, Fibro-Gel production is not expensive and can be easily scaled up to manufacturing levels.
The crucial breakthrough was made by doctoral student Yanting Shen and postdoctoral researcher Dr Yuan Liu from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at HKU: the researchers realized that the release of drugs from the gel can be controlled and tailored by adjusting the length of the microfibers making up the gel. freeze. of.
Longer microfibers become tightly entangled, resulting in a stiffer, less fluid gel, and it takes longer for drug molecules to be released. Conversely, Fibro-Gel with shorter microfibers has lower stiffness and is more fluid, resulting in faster drug release rates.
Taking advantage of this feature, the researchers designed a multiple drug delivery system: a gel composed of several layers with different lengths of microfibers and containing different drugs. These multiple drugs are released from the gel at different times, in sequence, thereby solving the drawbacks of existing hydrogel systems.
Laboratory tests on mice have shown that, compared to commercially available gels, Fibro-Gel regenerates tissue much faster, with new tissue forming earlier. Additionally, using a two-layer Fibro-Gel model, the researchers demonstrated that releasing distinct drugs at different rates improved wound healing.
One of these potential applications of Fibro-Gel is the regeneration of brain tissue in people suffering from Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease.
Professor Shum emphasized that multidisciplinary collaboration was essential in the production of Fibre-Gel: “Our collaboration allowed us to approach the topic of wound healing from multiple angles. This novel hydrogel has immense potential to address critical medical needs that require more versatile and compatible soft materials. “.
The successful partnership between HKU and Princeton University, supported by the Research Impact Fund of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, illustrates the power of cross-border collaboration and highlights the importance of pooling expertise to drive groundbreaking research in the field of regenerative medicine.
Their work has been published in
Advanced materials in an article “Fibro-Gel: a fully aqueous hydrogel composed of microfibers with an adjustable release profile and its application in wound healing”.
Link to document:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202211637.
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