Surgical‐Adjuvant Hydrogel of Full‐Natural Bioactive Compounds from Chinese Medicine for Enhanced Traumatic Brain Injury Therapy by Inhibiting Complement Activation
Abstract Complement activation drives inflammatory cascades that exacerbate secondary injuries in both acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) and postsurgical complications, yet remains clinically unaddressed by timely interventions. Here, a surgical‐adjuvant hydrogel platform (AG‐gel) is engineered through molecular self‐assembly strategy, utilizing fully natural bioactive components from Chinese medicine to enable early phase complement activation modulation. AG‐gel is self‐assembled from natural bioactive constituents (amygdalin and glycyrrhizic acid) under physiological conditions, demonstrating injectability and intrinsic pharmacological functions. With a single application after TBI debridement, AG‐gel shows efficacy in improving neurological function in preclinical TBI models. Specifically, AG‐gel achieves synergistic suppression of complement system activation through a dual mechanism that combines blood–brain barrier preservation to block peripheral C3 infiltration and directly binds to the C3 , thereby disrupting the self‐amplifying neuroinflammatory loop driven by glial activation crosstalk while potentiating endogenous neuroprotection. Collectively, this work provides an alternative surgical‐adjuvant hydrogel strategy for complement activation in TBI and related surgical manipulation.
Authors
- Quan Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7539-8728)
- Xiaohang Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6940-7461)
- Zhiqiang Yuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8139-8492)
- Tao Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7838-8525)
- Xudong Fan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0149-1326)
- Xianwen Song
- Yang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0447-3107)
- Jingjing Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3362-8270)
- Xin Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3414-8564)
- Menghan Cheng
- Haigang Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2346-6527)
- Jun Zheng
- Weikang Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1354-634X)
- Cong Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4215-2219)
Institutions
- Central South University (CN)
- Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CN)
- Changsha Medical University (CN)
- Changsha University (CN)
- Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine (CN)
- First Affiliated Hospital of University of South China (CN)
- Hengyang Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- Xiangya Hospital Central South University (CN)
- University of South China (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Published
- 2025-09-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202508893
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurovascular Disturbances
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.78
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Key Research and Development Program of Hunan Province of China
- Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities of the Central South University