Treatment of osteomyelitis with teicoplanin-encapsulated biodegradable thermosensitive hydrogel nanoparticles

Osteomyelitis characterized by an inflammatory response often leads to bone loss and the spread of bacterial infection to surrounding soft tissues. To overcome the side effects induced by the systemic antibiotic treatment for osteomyelitis, recent investigations have explored the use of antibiotic-loaded undegradable or biodegradable delivery implants at the infected bone. Here, we show a novel biodegradable thermosensitive implant composed of poly(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether (mPEG) and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) copolymer as a sol–gel drug delivery system for treating bone infection. The physical properties of a series of mPEG–PLGA nanocomposites, including the critical micelle concentration (CMC), particle size, polyindex (PI), sol–gel transition, viscosity and degradation rate, have been characterized in vitro. This sol-to-gel drug delivery system could provide several advantages in treating osteomyelitis, including easy preparation, 100% encapsulated rate, near-linear sustained release of drugs, injectable design and in situ gelling at the target tissue. Similar to the undegradable teicoplanin-impregnated polymethylmethacylate (PMMA) bone cements, we showed that implantation of the mPEG–PLGA hydrogel containing teicoplanin was effective for treating osteomyelitis in rabbits as detected by the histological staining and immunoblotting analyses. The use of the mPEG–PLGA-based biodegradable hydrogels may hold great promise as a therapeutic strategy for other infected diseases.