A smart hydrogel for on-demand delivery of antibiotics and efficient eradication of biofilms

Abstract

Biofilm-associated infections are difficult to treat in the clinics because the bacteria embedded in biofilm are ten to thousand times more resistant to traditional antibiotics than planktonic ones. Here, a smart hydrogel comprised of aminoglycoside antibiotics, pectinase, and oxidized dextran was developed to treat local biofilm-associated infections. The primary amines on aminoglycosides and pectinase were reacted with aldehyde groups on oxidized dextran via a pH-sensitive Schiff base linkage to form the hydrogel. Upon bacterial infection, the increased acidity triggers the release of both pectinase and aminoglycoside antibiotics. The released pectinase efficiently degrades extracellular polysaccharides surrounding the bacteria in biofilm, and thus greatly sensitizes the bacteria to aminoglycosides. The smart hydrogel efficiently eradicated biofilms and killed the embedded bacteria both in vitro and in vivo. This study provides a promising strategy for the treatment of biofilm-associated infections.

Aminoglycoside‐Based Biomaterials: From Material Design to Antibacterial and Gene Delivery Applications

“…The composite hydrogel efficiently degraded the mature biofilm and improved the sensitivity of encased bacteria to aminoglycosides, providing an efficient strategy to treat biofilm infection (Figure 3c). [ 72 ]…”

Layer‐by‐Layer Assembled Smart Antibacterial Coatings via Mussel‐Inspired Polymerization and Dynamic Covalent Chemistry

“…[14][15][16][17][18] For example, aminoglycosides (AGs), a family of antibiotics with multiple hydroxyl groups and amino groups in the structure, have been widely employed to construct smart antibacterial hydrogels with multiple responsiveness via kinds of dynamic chemical bonds. [19][20][21][22][23][24] Additionally, 5, 6-dihydroxyindole (DHI), a typical monomer of natural and synthetic melanins, has also been recognized as one of the most promising candidates for surface-independent smart coating materials using the musselinspired chemistry. [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] All those recent achievements inspired the further development of facile LBL fabrication strategies toward the robust and universal antibacterial coating materials by using natural building blocks and readily available chemistries.…”

A Smart Hydrogel with Anti‐Biofilm and Anti‐Virulence Activities to Treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infections

“…aeruginosa Adhesion Assay: P. aeruginosa bacteria suspension (1 × 10 8 CFU mL -1 ) was incubated with Nors at concentrations of 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 ×10 -3 m at 37 °C for 2 h. The wells were then gently washed using sterilized PBS, and the biomass of cell adhesion was determined by crystal violet staining. [24] Generally, the wells were dried and added with 150 μL methanol, and then incubated for 15 min for immobilization. The methanol was removed and the biofilm was naturally dried for 30 min.…”