Hypoxia,
a common characteristic of bacterial infections, is known
to be closely associated with the emergence of multidrug-resistant
bacteria, which hastens the need to develop advanced microbicides
and antibacterial techniques. Photodynamic therapy is a promising
strategy to reduce bacterial antibiotic resistance and employs photosensitizers,
excitation light sources, and sufficient oxygen to generate toxic
reactive oxygen species (ROS). The inherent limitation of PDT is that
the generation of ROS is restricted by the hypoxic microenvironment
in infection sites. Here, an oxygen self-supplying nanotherapeutic
is developed to enhance antibacterial activity against multidrug-resistant
bacteria on the basis of fluorinated boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-based
glycomimetics. The nanotherapeutic not only could capture the bacteria
efficiently but also was able to act as an oxygen carrier to relieve
the hypoxic microenvironment of bacterial infections, thus achieving
enhanced PDT efficacy. In a Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection of a rat cornea, typical administration of the nanotherapeutic
decreased the infiltrate and showed a faster healing capacity in comparison
with BODIPY-based glycomimetics. Self-supplying oxygen nanotherapeutics
that relieve the hypoxic microenvironment and interfere with bacterial
colonization have been shown to be a promising candidate for the management
of drug-resistant microbial keratitis.