Hyaluronic Acid-Modified ZIF-8 Nano-Vehicle for Self-Adaption Release of Curcumin for the Treatment of Burns

Scarring is caused by excessive medical treatment in the tissue remodeling stage; hence, the need for medication is not constant throughout the stage of burn recovery. In this study, we construct a nano self-adaption release system (Cur-ZIF8-HA) using hyaluronic acid (HA)-modified zeolite-imidazole-frame-8 (ZIF-8) as the nano-vehicle and curcumin (Cur) as the bioactive compound for the treatment of burns. The release of Cur within 48 h in the media of pH 8.5, pH 6.0, and pH 7.4 was 13.94, 54.05, and 20.17%, which could realize antibacterial functions in the inflammation stage, wound healing in the tissue proliferation/formation stage, and prevention of excessive fibroblast development and aberrant extracellular matrix deposition in the remodeling stage. Based on this property, Cur-ZIF8-HA has superior efficacy in healing bacterially infected burn wounds in vivo. This work provides a self-adaption release system with antibacterial wound-healing properties and prevents scarring functional based on the ZIF8-HA nano-vehicle, which opens a new way for the clinical application of curcumin for burn healing.