Liposome-loaded Prussian blue nanoparticles accelerate wound healing by promoting anti-inflammatory effects

Abstract

In recent years, patients have been wounded by fires, mechanical injuries and surgeries. As the number of such patients increases, wound healing has become a research hotspot in today's society. With the continuous development and application of nanoplatforms, nanomimic organisms have exhibited good therapeutic effects in various acute and chronic diseases. However, it has been reported in the literature that the existing nanoplatform technology has limited therapeutic ability for skin wound healing. For instance, gold and cerium oxide nanoparticles exhibit angiogenic and anti-microbial effects and Prussian blue (PB) nanoparticle hydrogels exhibit antioxidant effects; however, their poor biocompatibility limits their applications. Thus, based on the anti-inflammatory properties of PB, we synthesized a novel nanomaterial-biotinylated liposome (Lipo) loaded with PB (named PB@Lipo). The results indicated that biotinylated liposomes tremendously improved the biocompatibility and stability of PB. Additionally, studies have demonstrated that excessive inflammation leads to a significant delay in wound healing. Upon application to skin wounds, PB@Lipo effectively regulates the balance between macrophage pro-inflammatory phenotype (M1) and anti-inflammatory phenotype (M2) to exert anti-inflammatory effects. Meantime, PB@Lipo can promote the production of collagen deposition–related factors such as collagen type 1 (COL-1) and collagen type 3 (COL-3), which ultimately effectively accelerates wound healing. In general, well-designed new nanomaterials are expected to be potential candidates for the treatment of skin defects, which have excellent anti-inflammatory properties, high biocompatibility and stability.