A light-activated nanotherapeutic with broad-spectrum bacterial recognition to eliminate drug-resistant pathogens

Wei, XS (Wei, Xiaosong)^{[ 1 ]} ; Gao, YC (Gao, Yingchao)^{[ 1 ]} ; Hu, YQ (Hu, Yuqing)^{[ 1 ]} ; Zhang, YF (Zhang, Yufei)^{[ 1 ]} ; Zhang, XG (Zhang, Xinge)^{[ 1 ]}

JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY B, 2021, 9(5): 1364-1369

DOI: 10.1039/d0tb02583f

摘要

Obstinate infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria severely threaten human health. And the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria increases the morbidity and mortality of patients, thus necessitating the development of innovative or alternative therapeutics. Here, a light-activated nanotherapeutic with broad-spectrum bacterial recognition is established as an antibiotic-free therapeutic agent against pathogens. The nanotherapeutic with external phenylboronic acid-based glycopolymers increases the stability and biocompatibility and shows the ability of bacterial recognition. Once irradiated with near-infrared light, this nanotherapeutic with high photothermal conversion efficiency disrupts the cytoplasmic membrane, thus killing bacterial cells. Importantly, it also eliminates the biofilms formed by both drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) effectively. Thus, this antibiotic-free nanotherapeutic with hypotoxicity offers a promising approach to fight increasingly serious antimicrobial resistance.