Collagen-Binding Peptide-Enabled Supramolecular Hydrogel Design for Improved Organ Adhesion and Sprayable Therapeutic Delivery

Spraying serves as an attractive, minimally invasive means ofadministering hydrogels for localized delivery, particularly due to high-throughputdeposition of therapeutic depots over an entire target site of uneven surfaces.However, it remains a great challenge to design systems capable of rapid gelationafter shear-thinning during spraying and adhering to coated tissues in wet,physiological environments. We report here on the use of a collagen-bindingpeptide to enable a supramolecular design of a biocompatible, bioadhesive, andsprayable hydrogel for sustained release of therapeutics. After spraying, thedesigned peptide amphiphile-based supramolecularfilaments exhibit fast, physicalcross-linking under physiological conditions. Ourex vivostudies suggest that thehydrogelator strongly adheres to the wet surfaces of multiple organs, and the extent of binding to collagen influences release kineticsfrom the gel. We envision that the sprayable organ-adhesive hydrogel can serve to enhance the efficacy of incorporated therapeuticsfor many biomedical applications.

Automated summary

The study explores a method of using collagen-binding peptide to create a biocompatible and sprayable hydrogel, which can rapidly gel and adhere to multiple organ surfaces in wet physiological environments, enabling sustained release of therapeutic drugs.