Beijing Engineering Research Center for BioNanotechnology & Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for NanoScience and Technology, No. 11 Zhongguancun Beiyitiao, Beijing, 100190, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2018 Apr 3;57(15):3958-3962. doi: 10.1002/anie.201712878. Epub 2018 Mar 6.
Widespread multidrug resistance caused by the abuse of antibiotics calls for novel strategies and materials. Gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) are scarcely explored for combating multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria in vivo. We herein synthesized a novel class of AuNCs, namely quaternary ammonium (QA) capped AuNCs (QA-AuNCs) as potent antibiotics selectively targeting MDR Gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE), in vivo. QA-AuNCs kill bacteria through a combined physicochemical mechanism, and show excellent therapeutic effects in both a skin infection model and a bacteremia model induced by MRSA. In addition, owing to their intense fluorescence, QA-AuNCs can be used for the discrimination of live/dead bacteria and bacteria counting, suggesting their potential for clinical theranostics.
抗生素滥用导致的广泛多药耐药性需要新的策略和材料。金纳米簇（AuNCs）在体内对抗多药耐药（MDR）细菌的应用研究甚少。本研究合成了一类新型的金纳米簇，即季铵盐（QA）封端的 AuNCs（QA-AuNCs），作为一种有效的抗生素，选择性地针对体内的 MDR 革兰氏阳性菌，包括耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌（MRSA）和耐万古霉素肠球菌（VRE）。QA-AuNCs 通过联合物理化学机制杀死细菌，并在 MRSA 诱导的皮肤感染模型和菌血症模型中显示出优异的治疗效果。此外，由于其强烈的荧光，QA-AuNCs 可用于区分活/死细菌和细菌计数，这表明它们具有临床治疗和诊断的潜力。
