Injectable Anti-inflammatory Supramolecular Nanofiber Hydrogel to Promote Anti-VEGF Therapy in Age-Related Macular Degeneration Treatment.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a major cause of visual impairment and severe vision loss worldwide, while the currently available treatments are often unsatisfactory. Previous studies have demonstrated both inflammation and oxidative stress-induced damage to the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) are involved in the pathogenesis of aberrant development of blood vessels in wet AMD (wet-AMD). Although anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy (e.g., Ranibizumab) can impair the growth of new blood vessels, side effects were still found with repeated monthly intravitreal injections. Here, an injectable antibody-loaded supramolecular nanofiber hydrogel is fabricated by simply mixing betamethasone phosphate (BetP), a clinic anti-inflammatory drug, anti-VEGF, the gold-standard anti-VEGF drug for AMD treatment, with CaCl 2 . Upon intravitreal injection, such BetP-based hydrogel (BetP-Gel) while enabling long-term sustained release of anti-VEGF to inhibit vascular proliferation in the retina and attenuate choroidal neovascularization (CNV), could also scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) to reduce local inflammation. Remarkably, such BetP-Gel could dramatically prolong the effective treatment time of conventional anti-VEGF therapy. Notably, our anti-VEGF-loaded supramolecular hydrogel based on all clinically approved agents may be readily translated into clinical use for AMD treatment, with the potential to replace the current anti-VEGF therapy. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.