Injectable Therapeutic Hydrogel with H₂O₂ Self-Supplying and GSH Consumption for Synergistic...

Postoperative tumor recurrence and wound infection remain significant clinical challenges in surgery, often requiring adjuvant therapies. The combination treatment of photothermal therapy (PTT) and chemodynamic therapy (CDT) has proven to be effective in cancer treatment and wound infection. However, the hyperthermia during PTT increases the risk of normal tissue damage, severely impeding its application. Moreover, the efficacy of CDT is limited by insufficient hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and excessive glutathione (GSH) levels at tumor or infection sites. Herein, an injectable and multifunctional CuO₂@Au hydrogel system (CuO₂@Au Gel) is developed for synergistic CDT and low-temperature PTT (LTPTT) to prevent tumor recurrence and bacterial wound infections. CuO₂@Au Gel is constructed by embedding therapeutic CuO₂@Au into low-melting point agarose hydrogel. In vitro and in vivo experiments confirm that the CuO₂@Au in CuO₂@Au Gel is capable of self-supplying H₂O₂ and depleting GSH, exhibiting effective CDT effect in acidic tumor or bacterial infected microenvironment. Additionally, it exhibits favorable photothermal conversion ability, inducing localized temperature elevation and synergistically enhancing CDT efficiency. The prepared CuO₂@Au Gel demonstrates efficient tumor ablation capability in post-surgery recurrence mouse models and exhibits promising anti-infective efficiency in bacterial infection wound models, indicating significant potential in adjuvant therapy for post-surgical treatment and recovery.