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Antimicrobial hydrogel with multiple pH-responsiveness for infected burn wound healing

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Abstract

Burns are a common medical problem globally, and wound infection is one of the major causes of inducing related complications. Although antibiotics effectively prevent wound infections, the misuse of antibiotics has created a new problem of superbugs. Herein, we propose a new strategy to obtain pH-responsive antimicrobial P-ZIF (ZIF: zeolitic imidazolate framework) by loading polyhexamethylenebiguanide (PHMB) into the framework of ZIF-8 nanoparticles. This will enable PHMB to be released in the weak acid environment of an infected wound. To address burn infections, P-ZIF nanoparticles were loaded into a hydrogel system made of sodium alginate (SA) and 3-aminophenylboronic acid modified human-like collagen (H-A) through borate ester bonds. The resulting H-A/SA/P-ZIF (HASPZ) hydrogel dressing not only possesses antibacterial and wound healing properties but also has dual pH responsiveness to prevent the overuse of medication while effectively treat deep second-degree burns. Therefore, P-ZIF nanoparticles and the corresponding HASPZ hydrogel dressing are considered of significant importance in antimicrobial, drug delivery, and wound repair.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2021YFC2101504, 2021YFC2103900, and 2019YFA0905200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22078265 and 21908179), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province, China (No. 218JQ2052).

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  1. Na Li and Wan Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Degradable Biomedical Materials, Shaanxi R&D Center of Biomaterials and Fermentation Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Na Li, Wan Liu, Xiaoyan Zheng, Junfeng Hui & Daidi Fan

  2. Biotech. & Biomed. Research Institute, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Wan Liu, Junfeng Hui & Daidi Fan

  3. The college of life sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Qing Wang & Lixin Shen

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  1. Na Li
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  2. Wan Liu
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  3. Xiaoyan Zheng
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  4. Qing Wang
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  5. Lixin Shen
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Correspondence to Xiaoyan Zheng, Lixin Shen or Daidi Fan.

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Li, N., Liu, W., Zheng, X. et al. Antimicrobial hydrogel with multiple pH-responsiveness for infected burn wound healing. Nano Res. 16, 11139–11148 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5751-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5751-6

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