Peptide‐Engineered AIE Nanofibers with Excellent and Precisely Adjustable Antibacterial Activity

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Germany), 2022-04, Vol.18 (17), p.e2108030-n/a
• Main Authors: Guo, Kunzhong, Zhang, Minjie, Cai, Junyi, Ma, Zunwei, Fang, Zhou, Zhou, Haiyan, Chen, Junjian, Gao, Meng, Wang, Lin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agglomeration; AIEgens; Anti-Bacterial Agents - chemistry; antimicrobial peptides; Bacteria; in vivo antibacterial activity; Irradiation; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus; Nanofibers; Nanotechnology; Peptides; Peptides - pharmacology; Photochemotherapy; Photodynamic therapy; Photosensitizing Agents - chemistry; Reactive Oxygen Species; Wound healing
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202108030

Photosensitizers with aggregation‐induced emission properties (AIEgens) can produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) under irradiation, showing great potential in the antibacterial field. However, due to the limited molecular skeletons, the development of AIEgens with precisely adjustable antibacterial activity is still a daunting challenge. Herein, a series of AIE nanofibers (AIE‐NFs) based on the AIEgen of DTPM as the inner core and rationally designed peptides as bacterial recognition ligands (e.g., antimicrobial peptide (AMP) HHC36, ditryptophan, polyarginine, and polylysine) is developed. These AIE‐NFs show precisely adjustable antibacterial behaviors simply by changing the decorated peptides, which can regulate the aggregation and inhibition of different bacteria. By mechanistic analysis, it is demonstrated that this effect can be attributed to the synergistic antibacterial activities of the ROS and the peptides. It is noteworthy that the optimized AIE‐NFs, NFs‐K18, can efficiently aggregate bacteria to cluster and kill four types of clinical bacteria under irradiation in vitro, inhibit the infection of methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and promote wound healing in vivo. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report of AIE‐NFs with precisely adjustable antibacterial activity, providing new opportunities for photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatment of infection. A series of aggregation‐induced emission nanofibers (AIE‐NFs) based on DTPM is developed with rationally designed peptides as bacterial recognition ligands. These AIE‐NFs show precisely adjustable antibacterial activities to aggregate and kill bacteria. The optimized AIE‐NFs, NFs‐K18, can aggregate bacteria to cluster and kill four types of clinical bacteria under irradiation, inhibit MRSA infection, and promote wound healing in vivo.