Polymer nanoparticles crosslinked by polyethyleneimine and hydroquinone with the selective antibacterial, antibiofilm and antioxidative activity to promote infected wound healing

Abstract

Nowadays, bacteria infected wound healing is facing some challenges, like production of bacteriotoxin, formation of biofilm and accelerated inflammation in wound. Antibacterial nanomaterials emerge as a potential therapeutic agent for their multiple therapeutic effects and appreciated properties. Herein, a kind of polymer nanoparticles, e.g. H10P10000NPs crosslinked by polyethyleneimine and hydroquinone, were put forward to selectively kill Gram-positive bacteria with good biocompatibility. Meanwhile, H10P10000NPs selectively stained Gram-positive bacteria because of the brilliant green fluorescence, which was supposed to discriminate Gram-positive and -negative bacteria by fluorescence imaging. Additionally, H10P10000NPs could inhibit formation of biofilm and eradicate mature biofilm, which was potential to reduce drug resistance. Furthermore, H10P10000NPs exerted excellent antioxidative ability to eliminate excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) to reduce inflammatory response, which promoted the healing of the wound. When H10P10000NPs were applied to treat the mouse with the skin wound infected by Staphylococcus aureus, accelerated healing of infected wound was observed compared to the positive control. The present study provides a novel idea for the design of “all-in-one” nano agents with selective antibacterial, antibiofilm and ROS scavenging activity for the therapy of bacteria infected wound.