College of Pharmacy, Jinan University, Guangzhou 511443, China.
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
Acta Biomater. 2022 Apr 1;142:113-123. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2022.02.019. Epub 2022 Feb 19.
With the increased emergence and threat of multi-drug resistant microorganisms, MXenes have become not only an emerging class of two-dimensional functional nanomaterials, but also potential nanomedicines (i.e., antimicrobial agents) that deserve further exploration. Very recently, TiC MXene was observed to offer a unique membrane-disruption effect and superior light-to-heat conversion efficiency, but its antibacterial property remains unsatisfactory due to poor MXene-bacteria interactions, low photothermal therapy efficiency, and occurrence of bacterial rebound in vivo. Herein, the cationic antibiotic ciprofloxacin (Cip) is combined with TiC MXene, and a hybrid hydrogel was constructed by incorporating Cip-TiC nanocomposites into the network structure of a Cip-loaded hydrogels to effectively trap and kill bacteria. We found that the Cip-TiC nanocomposites achieved an impressive in vitro bactericidal efficiency of >99.99999% (7.03 log) for the inhibition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by combining chemotherapy with photothermal therapy. In an MRSA-induced murine abscess model, the hybrid hydrogel simultaneously achieved high-efficiency sterilization and long-term inhibition effects, avoiding the rebound of bacteria after photothermal therapy, and thus maximized the in vivo therapeutic efficacy of TiC MXene-based systems. Overall, this work provides a strategy for efficiently combating localized bacterial infection by rationally designing MXene-based hybrid hydrogels. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Two-dimensional TiC MXene was recently regarded as a promising functional nanomaterial, however, its antibacterial applications are limited by the poor MXene-bacteria interactions, low photothermal therapy efficiency, and the occurrence of bacterial rebound in vivo. This work aims to construct a TiC MXene-based hybrid hydrogel for chemo-photothermal therapy and enhance the antimicrobial performance via a combination of the high-efficiency sterilization of ciprofloxacin-TiC nanocomposites with the long-term inhibition effect of ciprofloxacin hydrogel. The present study provides an example of efficient MXene-based antimicrobials to treat localized bacterial infection such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-induced skin abscess.
随着多药耐药微生物的不断出现和威胁，MXenes 不仅成为了一类新兴的二维功能纳米材料，而且还成为了有潜力的纳米药物（即抗菌剂），值得进一步探索。最近，观察到 TiC MXene 具有独特的膜破坏效应和优异的光热转换效率，但由于 MXene-细菌相互作用差、光热治疗效率低以及体内细菌反弹，其抗菌性能仍不尽人意。在此，将阳离子抗生素环丙沙星（Cip）与 TiC MXene 结合，通过将 Cip-TiC 纳米复合材料掺入载有 Cip 的水凝胶的网络结构中，构建了一种混合水凝胶，以有效捕获和杀死细菌。我们发现，Cip-TiC 纳米复合材料通过化疗与光热治疗相结合，实现了令人印象深刻的体外杀菌效率，对耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌（MRSA）的抑制率超过 99.99999%（7.03 log）。在 MRSA 诱导的小鼠脓肿模型中，混合水凝胶同时实现了高效杀菌和长期抑制效果，避免了光热治疗后细菌的反弹，从而最大限度地提高了基于 TiC MXene 系统的体内治疗效果。总的来说，这项工作为通过合理设计基于 MXene 的混合水凝胶来有效对抗局部细菌感染提供了一种策略。
