Nanocomposite hydrogels: benefits and attributes for osteoarthritis therapy

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a prevalent and debilitating chronic joint disease, creating an urgent need for therapeutic strategies that move beyond symptomatic relief toward disease modification. Nanocomposite hydrogels, which incorporate nanoparticles into a three-dimensional (3D) polymeric network, have emerged as a promising class of biomaterials due to their enhanced and tailorable physical, chemical, and biological properties compared to conventional hydrogels. MAIN BODY: This review provides a systematic analysis of nanocomposite hydrogels for OA therapy. It begins by outlining the epidemiological burden of OA and limitations of current treatments, establishing the rationale for advanced local drug delivery systems. We then comprehensively examine the preparation strategies of nanocomposite hydrogels, encompassing physical encapsulation, electrostatic assembly, hydrogen bonding, covalent crosslinking, DNA origami, and advanced co-assembly platforms. Subsequently, the resulting systems are classified into three therapeutic paradigms based on their primary action, namely microenvironment-modulating, cartilage-reparative, and target-inhibiting or activating hydrogels. A dedicated section on structure-function engineering deconstructs the design of these materials, focusing on the construction of mechanical networks, the design of pore architectures for mass transport,

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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