Abstract
The management of ocular surface inflammation, particularly in conditions like dry eye disease (DED), remains challenging due to multiple pathogenic causes and ocular barriers. Traditional eye drops usually provide transient and partial symptom relief, necessitating combined therapies to break the vicious cycle of oxidative stress and inflammation. To surmount these limitations, a polyphenol-based eye drop is developed via the self-polymerization of rosmarinic acid in the presence of hyaluronic acid, followed by co-assembly with cerium ions to afford monodispersed RHC NPs. To enhance the ocular retention efficiency, thiol groups are further decorated on NPs (termed as s-RHC NPs). In two mouse models of DED, topical administration of s-RHC NPs leads to comprehensive relief of symptoms, including inflammatory response suppression, corneal epithelial defect repair, and tear secretion recovery. We envision that this work might facilitate the treatment of DED and inspire the design of polyphenol-based nanoparticles via a self-polymerization strategy.
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Data availability
The RNA sequencing data generated in this study are deposited in the NCBI’s Sequence Read Archive (SRA) under accession code PRJNA1369795. The proteomics data generated in this study are deposited in the NCBI’s Sequence Read Archive (SRA) under accession code IPX0014408002 [https://www.iprox.cn/page/project.html?id=IPX0014408000]. Source data are available for Figs. 2d–i, 2k, 2m–p, 3b, d, 3f–h, 3o, 4c, 4f-j, 5c–f, 5i–l, 5n, 6c–f, 6i–l, 6n and Supplementary Figs. 1b,d, 2a, d, f, g, h, 4a, 5b, 7a–c, 8–10, 12b,c, 21a–c, 22a–c, 23a, b, 25a, b and 26 in the associated source data file. The authors declare that the remaining data are available within the Manuscript, Supplementary Information or Source Data file. Source data are provided in this paper.
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Acknowledgements
Financial support from the Zhejiang Province Key Research and Development Program (2024C03073 received by H.H.), National Natural Science Foundation of China (22375128 received by Y.W., 82572387 received by H.H., 82271064 received by H.H., 22105126 received by Y.W.), and the Zhejiang Province Natural Science Foundation (LR23H120001 received by H.H.) is acknowledged.
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Z.W., Z.L., H.H., and Y.W. conceived the project and designed the experiments. Z.W. and R.X. synthesized materials. Z.W. and Y.G. performed in vitro cell experiments. Z.L. performed in vivo experiments. Z.W., Z.L., R.X., F.W., H.H., and Y.W. contributed to data collection and analysis. Z.W., Z.L., H.H., and Y.W. cowrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and reviewed the manuscript.
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Wang, Z., Lv, Z., Ge, Y. et al. Self-polymerized polyphenol-based platform for the management of dry eye pathogenesis. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70388-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70388-1
