A Biomimetic Lubricating Nanosystem with Responsive Drug Release for Osteoarthritis Synergistic Therapy

Osteoarthritis (OA) is associated with lubrication failure of articular cartilage and severe inflammatory response of joint capsule. Synergistic therapy combining joint lubrication and anti-inflammation emerges as a novel treatment of OA. In this study, bioinspired by ultralow friction of natural articular synovial fluid and mussel adhesion chemistry, a biomimetic nanosystem with dual functions of enhanced lubrication and stimuli-responsive drug release is developed. A dopamine mediated strategy realizes one step biomimetic grafting of hyaluronic acid (HA) on fluorinated graphene. The polymer modified sheets exhibit highly efficient near-infrared absorption, and show steady lubrication with a long time under various working conditions, in which the coefficient of friction is reduced by 75% compared to H₂ O. Diclofenac sodium (DS) with a high loading capacity of 29.2% is controllably loaded, and responsive and sustained drug release is adjusted by near-infrared light. Cell experiments reveal that the lubricating nanosystem is taken up by endocytosis, and anti-inflammation results confirm that the nanosystem inhibits osteoarthritis deterioration by upregulating cartilage anabolic gene and downregulating catabolic proteases and pain-related gene. This work proposes a promising biomimetic approach to integrate polymer modified fluorinated graphene as a dual-functional nanosystem for effective synergistic therapy of OA.