Dimeric copper peptide incorporated hydrogel for promoting diabetic wound healing
Rui Cong, Chengyu Deng, Pengwei Li, Yi‐Wei Tang, Jinfan Hou, Jiehui Zhao, Qili Wang, Yingying Chen, Jiasheng Tu, Xiqun Jiang, Lei Jiang
Abstract
Diabetic wounds require continuous and coordinated modulation of the microenvironment concurrent with tissue regeneration, which remains a significant challenge. As a proof of concept, we herein propose to use dimeric copper peptide (D-CuP) for diabetic wound treatment. The D-CuP is synthesized and then incorporated into a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive hydrogel matrix to improve therapeutic compliance, culminating in the formulation of G/D-CuP. Compared to monomer copper peptide (M-CuP), a wound healing agent, D-CuP exhibits multivalency, enhanced biological stability against proteases, and broad biological activities. Meanwhile, the hydrogel matrix, exhibiting ROS-scavenging capabilities, has been engineered to be an intelligent drug reservoir for wound-responsive release of D-CuP at the wound site while simultaneously attenuating inflammatory responses. Ultimately, the G/D-CuP group demonstrates superior therapeutic efficacy, achieving 97.2% closure of infected wounds. Diabetic wounds are a prevalent type of chronic wound that is challenging to treat due to the dynamic and complex wound microenvironment. Here, Cong et al. presents a dimeric copper peptide incorporated hydrogel for multifunctional treatment of diabetic wounds.