title: Sericin/Dextran Injectable Hydrogel as an Optically Trackable Drug Delivery System for Malignant Melanoma Treatment.
abstract: Severe side effects of cancer chemotherapy prompt developing better drug delivery systems. Injectable hydrogels are an effective site-target system. For most of injectable hydrogels, once delivered in vivo, some properties including drug release and degradation, which are critical to chemotherapeutic effects and safety, are challenging to monitor. Developing a drug delivery system for effective cancer therapy with in vivo real-time noninvasive trackability is highly desired. Although fluorescence dyes are used for imaging hydrogels, the cytotoxicity limits their applications. By using sericin, a natural photoluminescent protein from silk, we successfully synthesized a hydrazone cross-linked sericin/dextran injectable hydrogel. This hydrogel is biodegradable and biocompatible. It achieves efficient drug loading and controlled release of both macromolecular and small molecular drugs. Notably, sericin's photoluminescence from this hydrogel is directly and stably correlated with its degradation, enabling long-term in vivo imaging and real-time monitoring of the remaining drug. The hydrogel loaded with Doxorubicin significantly suppresses tumor growth. Together, the work demonstrates the efficacy of this drug delivery system, and the in vivo effectiveness of this sericin-based optical monitoring strategy, providing a potential approach for improving hydrogel design toward optimal efficiency and safety of chemotherapies, which may be widely applicable to other drug delivery systems.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, China 430022.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, China 430022.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China 430022.
authors.forename: Kaixiong
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, Hubei, China 430022.
authors.forename: Jinxiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, China 430022.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, China 430022.
authors.forename: Luming
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biomedical Polymers of Ministry of Education and Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University , Wuhan, China 430072.
authors.forename: Xulin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biomedical Polymers of Ministry of Education and Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University , Wuhan, China 430072.
authors.forename: Yunti
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, China 430022.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, China 430022.
authors.forename: Qilin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, China 430022.
authors.forename: Hongjian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China 430022.
authors.forename: Jinbo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China 430022.
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shuai
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China 430022.
authors.forename: Guobin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, China 430022.|Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China 430022.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, China 430022.|Department of Clinical Laboratory, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, China 430022.|Medical Research Center, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, China 430022.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D003911:Dextrans / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D004317:Doxorubicin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D008545:Melanoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D047030:Sericins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
chemical_list: D003911:Dextrans; D020100:Hydrogels; D047030:Sericins; D004317:Doxorubicin
keywords: cancer chemotherapy; dextran; in vivo trackability; injectable hydrogel; photoluminescence; sericin