Dual-functional guanosine-based hydrogel integrating localized delivery and anticancer activities for cancer therapy

Supramolecular hydrogel delivery systems have attracted widely attention owing to incorporating various therapeutic agents in carriers to decrease unpredictable toxicities, improve curative efficacy, and protect drug bioactivity. Nonetheless, the dual-functional supramolecular hydrogel integrating localized delivery and antineoplastic activities in one system have rarely observed. In this study, we successfully developed a novel supramolecular hydrogel, isoguanosine-borate-guanosine (isoGBG), with reversibly and dynamic borate ester bonds formed via boric acids and diols derived from nature products guanosine and isoguanosine in one pot by following a simple procedure. Both in vivo and in vitro results demonstrated that the isoGBG hydrogel not only displays excellent stability, self-healing properties and biocompatibility, but also has highly anti-tumor activities through inducing tumor cell apoptosis and excellent inhibition effect of tumor recurrence. These findings suggested that isoGBG hydrogel can serve as a dual-function hydrogel system integrating drug carrier and anti-cancer compound in one system, which provided a promising strategy for the design of functional supramolecular hydrogel in the local management of cancer in the future.