Natural Matrine-Integrated Pollen Delivery Systems for Allergic Contact Dermatitis Treatment

Abstract

Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) is an inflammatory dermatitis with a high morbidity and recurrence rate. Scientific attention is focused on the development of safe and comfortable therapeutics of ACD. Herein, we propose a natural matrine-integrated pollen delivery system for the ACD treatment. Sunflower pollens were collected and defatted to serve as adhesive drug carriers for matrine. Specifically, the exquisite porous and hollow structures of the pollen shells can absorb matrine and realize the sustained drug release. Besides, the prickly surface morphology can strongly adhere to the inflamed skin sites, which can prolong the duration of the drug. By utilizing them in an ACD model and an acute pruritus model of mice, we have demonstrated that these matrine-integrated pollen shells can decrease the swelling degree of mice ears and weight loss, downregulate inflammatory response, and improve the scratching times. These results indicate that our matrine-integrated pollen delivery systems have great potential to serve as natural topical preparations for skin disease therapy.

Keywords

allergic contact dermatitis / Chinese medicine / drug delivery / matrine / pollen / skin disease

References

[1] F. Puttur and C. M. Lloyd, “Sex Differences in Tissue Immunity,” Science 384 (2024):159-160.

[2] P. Sivasami, C. Elkins, P. P Diaz-Saldana, et al., “Obesity-induced Dysregulation of Skin-Resident Pparγ(+) Treg Cells Promotes Il-17a-Mediated Psoriatic Inflammation,” Immunity 56 (2023):1844-1861.

[3] P. Kolkhir, S. Altrichter, F. M. S. Badloe, et al., “The European Network for Ige-Mediated Autoimmunity and Autoallergy (Enigma) Initiative,” Nature Medicine 30 (2024):920-922.

[4] P. L. Scheinman, M. Vocanson, J. P. Thyssen, et al., “Contact Dermatitis,” Nature Reviews Disease Primers 7 (2021):38.

[5] G. Hoeffel, G. Debroas, A. Roger, et al., “Sensory Neuron-Derived Tafa4 Promotes Macrophage Tissue Repair Functions,” Nature 594 (2021):94-99.

[6] L. Deng, F. Costa, K. J. Blake, et al., “S. aureus Drives Itch and Scratch-Induced Skin Damage Through a V8 Protease-Par1 axis,” Cell 186 (2023):5375-5393.

[7] K. Sasaki, A. Himeno, T. Nakagawa, Y. Sasaki, H. Kiyonari, and K. Iwai, “Modulation of Autoimmune Pathogenesis by T Cell-Triggered Inflammatory Cell Death,” Nature Communications 10 (2019):3878.

[8] A. Schäbitz, C. Hillig, M. Mubarak, et al., “Spatial Transcriptomics Landscape of Lesions From Non-Communicable Inflammatory Skin Diseases,” Nature Communications 13 (2022):7729.

[9] S. Willenborg and S. A. Eming, “Cellular Networks in Wound Healing,” Science 362 (2018):891-892.

[10] B. L. Adler and V. A. DeLeo, “Allergic Contact Dermatitis,” Jama Dermatology 157 (2021):364.

[11] K. K. Brar, “A Review of Contact Dermatitis,” Annals of Allergy, Asthma &Immunology 126 (2021):32-39.

[12] F. Levi-Schaffer and J. Scheffel, “Dangerous Liaisons in Anaphylaxis,” Science 362 (2018):640-641.

[13] E. Ono, V. Lenief, M. A. Lefevre, et al., “Topical Corticosteroids Inhibit Allergic Skin Inflammation but Are Ineffective in Impeding the Formation and Expansion of Resident Memory T Cells,” Allergy 79 (2024):52-64.

[14] M. J. Ridd, M. Santer, S. J. MacNeill, et al., “Effectiveness and Safety of Lotion, Cream, Gel, and Ointment Emollients for Childhood Eczema: A Pragmatic, Randomised, Phase 4, Superiority Trial,” Lancet Child &Adolescent Health 6 (2022):522-532.

[15] R. J. Grams, W. L. Santos, I. R. Scorei, et al., “The Rise of Boron-Containing Compounds: Advancements in Synthesis, Medicinal Chemistry, and Emerging Pharmacology,” Chemical Reviews 124 (2024):2441-2511.

[16] S. Ghosalkar, P. Singh, and P. Ravikumar, “Emerging Topical Drug Delivery Approaches for the Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis,” Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology 21 (2022):536-549.

[17] F. M. Ferguson, “Protacs Reach Clinical Development in Inflammatory Skin Disease,” Nature Medicine 29 (2023):3006-3007.

[18] M. Li, W. Tan, J. Du, et al., “Tacrolimus Ointment in the Treatment of Hormone-Dependent Dermatitis: A Protocol of Systematic Review,” Medicine 99 (2020):e22159.

[19] T. Kazim, A. Tariq, M. Usman, M. F. Ayoob, and A. Khan, “Chitosan Hydrogel for Topical Delivery of Ebastine Loaded Solid Lipid Nanoparticles for Alleviation of Allergic Contact Dermatitis,” RSC Advances 11 (2021):37413-37425.

[20] W. C. Gordon, V. G. López, S. Bhattacharjee, et al., “A Nonsteroidal Novel Formulation Targeting Inflammatory and Pruritus-Related Mediators Modulates Experimental Allergic Contact Dermatitis,” Dermatology and Therapy 8 (2018):111-126.

[21] J. R. Chalmers, R. H. Haines, L. E. Bradshaw, et al., “Daily Emollient During Infancy for Prevention of Eczema: The Beep Randomised Controlled Trial,” Lancet 395 (2020):962-972.

[22] Y. Li, J. Wang, and J. Xie, “Biomimetic Nanoparticles Targeting Atherosclerosis for Diagnosis and Therapy,” Smart Medicine 2 (2023): e20230015.

[23] D. Luo, Q. Lin, J. L. Tan, et al., “Water-Soluble Matrine-Type Alkaloids With Potential Anti-Neuroinflammatory Activities From the Seeds of Sophora Alopecuroides,” Bioorganic Chemistry 116 (2021):105337.

[24] Y. Sun, L. Xu, Q. Cai, et al., “Research Progress on the Pharmacological Effects of Matrine,” Frontiers in Neuroscience 16 (2022):977374.

[25] L. Zhang, S. Lin, Y. Zheng, and H. Wang, “Matrine Regulates Th1/Th2 Balance to Treat Eczema by Upregulating Interferon-γ” Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 20 (2020):3378-3386.

[26] X. Li, L. Zhang, Y. Xu, et al., “Therapeutic Effect of Matrine on Collagen-Induced Arthritis Rats and its Regulatory Effect on Rankl and Opg Expression,” Journal of Immunology Research 2021 (2021):4186102.

[27] J. Kang, S. Liu, Y. Song, et al., “Matrine Treatment Reduces Retinal Ganglion Cell Apoptosis in Experimental Optic Neuritis,” Scientific Reports 11 (2021):9520.

[28] Y. Lei, Q. Zhang, G. Kuang, X. Wang, Q. Fan, and F. Ye, “Functional Biomaterials for Osteoarthritis Treatment: From Research to Application,” Smart Medicine 1 (2022): e20220014.

[29] L. Cai, X. Cao, C. Zhao, Z. Luo, and Y. Zhao, “Near-Infrared-ii-Driven Pollen Micromotors for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Treatment,” ACS Nano 17 (2023):19993-20001.

[30] Y. Wang, L. Sun, J. Guo, et al., “Pollens Derived Magnetic Porous Particles for Adsorption of Low-Density Lipoprotein From Plasma,” Bioactive Materials 6 (2021):1555-1562.

[31] L. Cai, C. Zhao, X. Cao, et al., “Chinese Herb Pollen Derived Micromotors as Active Oral Drug Delivery System for Gastric Ulcer Treatment,” Bioactive Materials 32 (2024):28-36.

[32] L. Yang, L. Sun, H. Zhang, F. Bian, and Y. Zhao, “Ice-Inspired Lubricated Drug Delivery Particles From Microfluidic Electrospray for Osteoarthritis Treatment,” ACS Nano 15 (2021):20600-20606.

[33] Y. Chen, Y. Zhou, Z. Hu, et al., “Gelatin-Based Metamaterial Hydrogel Films With High Conformality for Ultra-Soft Tissue Monitoring,” Nano-Micro Letters 16 (2024):34.

[34] W. Li, M. Wang, S. Wang, et al., “An Adhesive Bioink Toward Biofabrication Under Wet Conditions,” Small 19 (2023):2205078.

[35] G. Jian, D. Li, Q. Ying, et al., “Dual Photo-Enhanced Interpenetrating Network Hydrogel With Biophysical and Biochemical Signals for Infected Bone Defect Healing,” Advanced Healthcare Materials 12 (2023):2300469.

[36] Y. Zhuang and W. Cui, “Biomaterial-Based Delivery of Nucleic Acids for Tissue Regeneration,” Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 176 (2021):113885.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2025 The Author(s). Smart Medicine published by Wiley-VCH GmbH on behalf of Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.