Engineering a Non‐Antibiotic Biomimetic Nano‐Urchin for Broad‐Spectrum and Long‐Acting Antibacterial Spraying
Zijun Zhang, Limei Qian, Nan Zhang, Xiaobing Gao, Taolei Sun, Guanbin Gao
Abstract
Abstract The escalating threat of bacterial infections, especially antibiotic‐resistant strains, highlights the need for efficient, long‐term, broad‐spectrum, and non‐antibiotic disinfectants. Here a biomimetic nano‐disinfectant, Au@ZnO nano‐urchins (Au@ZnO‐NUs) is introduced, inspired by sea urchin morphology. One of the nano‐urchins consisting of an Au‐nanocore (25 ± 5 nm in diameter) surrounded by 16 ± 2 ZnO‐nanospears (length: 50 ± 5 nm, diameter: 14 ± 6 nm) is screened out via exhibiting exceptional antibacterial efficacy. Impressively, this Au@ZnO‐NU shows over 99.47% effectiveness against 7 typical bacteria including the methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) at low concentration (<8 µg mL −1 ) with effects lasting at least 30 days. The underlying bacteriostatic mechanism involves multiple pathways, including physical penetration of bacterial walls, ROS over‐production, membrane‐potential dissipation, ATP‐level downregulation, and biofilm deformation obtained from both experiment and transcriptomic‐analysis. Moreover, these nano‐urchins can be easily applied as a spray‐coating on any surface, creating a wash‐resist, cicada‐wing‐like nano‐spiky array antibacterial layer. Remarkably, this Au@ZnO‐NU exhibits excellent anti‐bacterial performance in MRSA‐infectedlarge wound (25 mm) healing rat models, which is even better than Vancomycin, approaching the natural healing rate of sterile wounds. This study offers a promising candidate for daily antibacterial applications and advances the biomimetic design of non‐antibiotic antibacterial strategies.