Surgical suture coated with macrophage targeting polymeric nanoparticles for enhanced anti-inflammatory effect

Abstract

Surgical sutures are essential for most of surgery and treatments for injury. However, sutures elicit foreign body reactions and it leads to excessive inflammatory reactions. The intense inflammation causes inflammatory pain, impediment of wound healing and various wound complications. Traditionally, to manage these adverse events of suture, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are administered by oral route or injection. These administered drugs have low bioavailability and require repetitive administration. Furthermore, systemic exposure of NSAIDs can induce adverse effects. Here, we introduced a new strategy for a functional su-ture having efficient anti-inflammatory effect. We developed anti-inflammatory nanoparticles targeting macro-phages and coated them on the suture. The mannose-PEG nanoparticle showed greater and selective uptake effect for Raw264.7 macrophage cells. It also released diclofenac for about 4 days. These characteristics make nanoparticles to be remained in inflammatory tissues and to sustain release of anti-inflammatory drug. The man-nose-PEG nanoparticle coated suture showed higher anti-inflammatory effect than free diclofenac molecule coated suture. We used advantages of nanoparticles to resolve excessive inflammatory response and it showed significant efficiency compared to free drug molecule. It reveals the potentials of this approach for developing a new functional suture.