In situ forming an injectable hyaluronic acid hydrogel for drug delivery and synergistic tumor therapy

Stimulus-responsive injectable hydrogel has the key characteristics of in situ drug-loading ability and the controlled drug release, enabling efficient delivery and precise release of chemotherapy drugs at the tumor site, thereby being used as a local drug delivery system for sustained tumor treatment. This article designed a smart responsive injectable hydrogel loaded with anti-tumor drugs and nanoparticles to achieve efficient and specific synergistic treatment of tumors. Hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogel obtained by cross-linking HA-SH (HS) and HA-Tyr (HT) through horseradish peroxidase (HRP), and doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) and folic acid-polyethylene glycol-amine (FA-PEG-NH2) modified PDA (denoted as PPF) were encapsulated to construct the HS/HT@PPF/D hydrogel. The hydrogel had good biocompatibility, injectability, and could respond to multiple stimuli at the tumor site, thereby achieving controlled drug release. At the same time, PPF gave it excellent photothermal efficiency, photothermal stability and tumor targeting. In vitro and in vivo experimental results showed that the HS/HT@PPF/D hydrogel combined with near-infrared laser irradiation could significantly improve its anti-tumor effect and could almost eliminate the entire tumor mass without obvious adverse reactions. The HS/HT@PPF/D hydrogel could achieve multi-stimulus-responsive drug delivery and be used for precise chemo-photothermal synergistic tumor treatment, thus providing a new platform for local synergistic tumor treatment.