Ofloxacin-loaded Selenium-tellurium Nanoheterojunctions for Skin Infection and Wound Healing

Abstract

With the increasing antibiotic-resistant bacteria, antibiotic treatment’s effectiveness has decreased, posing considerable threats to public health. Synergistic therapy for bacterial infection has attracted extensive attention due to its rapid, high efficiency and low toxicity. This work synthesized high performance and bioactive selenium tellurium nanoheterojunctions (TeSe) by one-step hydrothermal method. TeSe has high photothermal conversion efficiency (81.4%) and excellent photostability under 808 nm laser irradiation. Combined therapeutic nanoplatform was constructed by loading with ofloxacin (OFLX) based on TeSe nanomaterial as a NIR photothermal agent and carrier. Under physiological conditions, a small amount of drug release was observed, and NIR irradiation could effectively enhance OFLX release. In vitro antibacterial experiments indicated that combined with antibiotic and photothermal therapy had significant antibacterial activity against gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) and gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). In addition, animal experiments further demonstrated that the combination therapy exhibited excellent bactericidal activity and promoted wound healing of infection. Such combined treatment strategy not only avoids damage to surrounding tissues in PTT, but also reduces antibiotic use and delays the development of antibiotic resistance. Therefore, this work reveals the potential of antibiotic-photothermal combined therapy nanoplatform in the field of antibacterial applications, providing a novel strategy for the treatment of infectious diseases.