Pomegranate Polyphenol-Derived Injectable Therapeutic Hydrogels to Enhance Neuronal Regeneration

Abstract

Drug deliveryfor the treatment of neurological disorders has longbeen considered complex due to difficulties in ensuring the drug targetingon a specific site of the damaged neural tissues and its prolongedrelease. A syringe-injectable polymeric hydrogel with mechanical modulimatching those of brain tissues can provide a solution to deliverthe drugs to the specific region through intracranial injections ina minimally invasive manner. In this study, an injectable therapeutichydrogel with antioxidant pomegranate polyphenols, punicalagin, isreported for efficient neuronal repair. The hydrogels composed oftyramine-functionalized hyaluronic acid and collagen crosslinked byenzymatic reactions have great injectability with high shape fidelityand effectively encapsulate the polyphenol therapeutics. Furthermore,the punicalagin continuously released from the hydrogels over severaldays could enhance the growth and differentiation of the neurons.Our findings for efficacy of the polyphenol therapeutic-encapsulatedinjectable hydrogels on neuronal regeneration would be promising fordesigning a new type of antioxidative biomaterials in brain disordertherapy.