Architecting polyelectrolyte hydrogels with Cu-assisted polydopamine nanoparticles for photothermal antibacterial therapy
Zhangping Li, Shengye You, Ruiting Mao, Yajing Xiang, Erya Cai, Hui Deng, Jianliang Shen, Xiaoliang Qi
Abstract
Polydopamine nanoparticles (PDA NPs) are an appealing biomimetic photothermal agent for photothermal antibacterial treatment because of their long-term safety, excellent photostability, accessible manufacturing, and good biodegradability. However, the low photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE) of PDA NPs requires high-power and long-term near-infrared light irradiation, which severely restricts their practical application. In this work, [email protected] NPs were fabricated by growing Cu NPs in situ on the surface of PDA and then introduced into a polyelectrolyte hydrogel precursor (cationic polyethyleneimine/anionic pectin, named as CPAP). The formulated photothermal platform possessed a high PCE (55.4%), almost twice as much as pure PDA NPs (30.8%). Moreover, the designed CPAP/[email protected] captured and killed some bacteria by electrostatic adsorption, which helped enhance the antibacterial performance. As expected, the formed CPAP/[email protected] that combined the advantageous features of [email protected] NPs (high PCE) and CPAP matrix (inherent antibacterial activity and preventing NPs aggregation) can efficiently kill bacteria both in vitro and in vivo under the help of near-infrared laser irradiation. Taken together, this study offers a promising strategy for constructing a facile and safe PDA-based photothermal agent for photothermal antibacterial therapy.