MXene-based hydrogel offers dual-action treatment for periodontitis

Periodontitis is a extremely prevalent continual inflammatory illness worldwide. It results in periodontal tissue destruction, alveolar bone resorption, and finally tooth loosening and loss, severely impacting sufferers’ oral operate and high quality of life. Bacterial biofilms in periodontitis are fashioned by Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum, which set up extremely organized microbial communities inside periodontal pockets. Moreover, the slim, irregular form of periodontal pockets, coupled with extended erosion by saliva and gingival crevicular fluid, additional weakens the retention and sustained impact of antimicrobial medication.

Present medical therapy largely depends on mechanical debridement and native antimicrobial remedy. Nonetheless, the tolerance of mature biofilms, inadequate antimicrobial penetration, and the potential danger of drug resistance restrict therapy efficacy. Extra importantly, even when mechanical debridement and native antimicrobial remedy cut back the bacterial focus inside periodontal pockets, persistent infection-induced immune cell metabolic problems should still preserve the inflammatory response. In an inflammatory state, macrophages shift their metabolic pathway from mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis, accompanied by the buildup of reactive oxygen species and the discharge of pro-inflammatory components. This drives macrophages in the direction of M1 polarization, resulting in inflammatory bone resorption within the periodontal area. Subsequently, periodontitis therapy not solely requires successfully disrupting bacterial biofilms but additionally reshaping the native immune metabolic microenvironment to basically break the vicious cycle of “infection-inflammation-bone resorption.”

Just lately, the group led by Lin Quan and Zhou Yanmin at Jilin College developed an injectable MXene-based composite hydrogel (GQM) for the therapy of periodontitis. The hydrogel consists of oxidized gellan gum (OG), quaternized chitosan (QCS), and magnesium-tannic acid modified MXene nanosheets (MTA-Mg). The formation of dynamic imine bonds between OG and QCS permits GQM to be injectable, self-healing, and adaptable to the irregular house of the periodontal pocket, thereby stably delivering MTA-Mg and retaining it inside the periodontal pocket.

By way of antibacterial properties, the cationic quaternary ammonium teams of QCS can electrostatically adsorb and neutralize anionic parts in bacterial membranes and biofilm matrices, thereby disrupting bacterial membrane boundaries and extracellular polymer constructions. Concurrently, MTA-Mg generates a light photothermal impact below 808 nm near-infrared irradiation, able to breaking down dense biofilms. The mix of those two parts kinds a biofilm-disrupting technique that mixes electrostatic sterilization with photothermal stimulation.

By way of immune regulation, MXene nanosheets in MTA-Mg nanosheets can function electron transport channels. The reversible redox cycle of tannins (phenol/quinone) helps stabilize the electron switch course of on the materials interface, and magnesium ion coordination additional enhances the steadiness of this interface. This electron switch course of helps restore the NAD⁺/NADH steadiness in infected macrophages, reactivates the mitochondrial respiratory chain, and will increase oxidative phosphorylation ranges, thereby inducing macrophages to rework from a pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype to a restore M2 phenotype. This examine gives a brand new therapeutic technique for periodontitis therapy by way of a twin mechanism of “biomembrane disruption-immunometabolic reprogramming.”

This analysis titled “MXene-based Hydrogel Disrupt Bacterial Biofilms and Reprogram Immune Cell Metabolism by way of Photothermal-Electron Switch Results to Reverse Bone Resorption in Periodontitis” was revealed in Nano Analysis on July 3, 2026.

This analysis was supported by the Pure Science Basis of Jilin Province (SKL202302002).