Assembled polyphenol‐based systems as advanced therapeutics

Abstract Polymeric assemblies have emerged as a kind of promising platform in biomedical fields. The strong potency of polyphenols to form versatile interactions with other small or polymeric molecules via covalent and noncovalent linkages enables polyphenols to serve as molecular glues, offering a magic driving force to assemble multiple functional molecules into a diversity of polyphenol‐based systems, such as nanoparticles and hydrogels. Due to the unique merits of anti‐tumor, anti‐bacterial, antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory, and cardioprotective properties of polyphenols, polyphenol‐based systems hold great promise to deal with a wide spectrum of diseases. This review comprehensively overviews the components, intermolecular interactions, and preparation methods implicated in the assembly of polyphenol‐based systems. In addition, their medical applications are introduced, particularly the treatments of various diseases, such as tumors, bacterial infections, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), chronic periodontitis, acute lung injury, osteoarthritis, and renal fibrosis.