Targeted inflammation and sustained release delivery: Erlotinib nanosystem intervention in DR
Xiang-Yi Liu, Qian-Min Ge, Liang-Qi He, Yan-Mei Zeng, Qian Ling, Jie Zou, Cheng Chen, Jin-Yu Hu, Xiao-Yu Wang, Xu Chen, Yi-Xin Wang, Yao Yu
Received: October 24, 2025 Accepted: November 7, 2025 Published: November 9, 2025
ABSTRACT
DR, as a major blinding microvascular complication, needs to overcome the clinical bottleneck of repeated injection of anti-VEGF therapy. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the molecular mechanism of Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor Erlotinib inhibiting DR microvascular leakage by targeting the EGFR-TLRs/HMGB1/NF-κB inflammatory axis, and to develop a nano-delivery system with both sustained release and antioxidant functions to achieve long-term treatment with single administration.