Hyaluronan and elastin-like protein (HELP) gels significantly improve microsphere retention in the myocardium.
Riley A SuharVanessa M DoulamesYueming LiuMeghan E HefferonOscar FigueroaHana BuabbasSarah C HeilshornPublished in: Biomaterials science (2022)
Heart disease is the leading cause of death globally, and delivery of therapeutic cargo ( e.g. , particles loaded with proteins, drugs, or genes and cells) through direct injection into the myocardium is a promising clinical intervention. However, retention of deliverables to the contracting myocardium is low, with as much as 60-90% of payload being lost within 24 hr. Commercially-available injectable hydrogels, including Matrigel, have been hypothesized to increase payload retention but have not yielded significant improvements in quantified analyses. Here, we assess a recombinant hydrogel composed of chemically modified hyaluronan and elastin-like protein (HELP) as an alternative injectable carrier to increase cargo retention. HELP is crosslinked using dynamic covalent bonds, and tuning the hyaluronan chemistry significantly alters hydrogel mechanical properties including stiffness, stress relaxation rate, and ease of injectability through a needle or catheter. These materials can be injected even after complete crosslinking, extending the time window for surgical delivery. We show that HELP gels significantly improve in vivo retention of microsphere cargo compared to Matrigel, both 1 day and 7 days post-injection directly into the rat myocardium. These data suggest that HELP gels may assist with the clinical translation of therapeutic cargo designed for delivery into the contracting myocardium by preventing acute cargo loss.
Keyphrases
- hyaluronic acid
- drug delivery
- ultrasound guided
- tissue engineering
- wound healing
- randomized controlled trial
- pulmonary hypertension
- cancer therapy
- cell cycle arrest
- drug induced
- electronic health record
- dna methylation
- intensive care unit
- machine learning
- respiratory failure
- drug release
- cell death
- hepatitis b virus
- bioinformatics analysis
- heat stress
- aortic dissection