Facile Assembly of Multifunctional Antibacterial Nanoplatform Leveraging Synergistic Sensitization between Silver Nanostructure and Vancomycin

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains renders the conventional antibiotic therapy less efficient. The integration of two distinct bactericides into one compact platform provides a promising strategy to realize a combinational antimicrobial therapy. In this work, an efficient chemo-Ag nanohybrid antibacterial platform was facilely developed based on the integration of vancomycin-carrying polydopamine with silver nanoparticles (PDA@Van-Ag). The as-synthesized antibacterial nanohybrid inherited the intrinsic properties of both bactericides to achieve a synergistic antibacterial performance against both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli strains by attacking bacteria from two distinct fronts. Through this combinational therapy, the efficiency of antibiotic against S. aureus was significantly improved by reducing drug dosage with less opportunity for imparting drug resistance. In addition, this antibacterial nanohybrid, with innate photothermal properties, could achieve auxiliary hyperthermia-assisted bacterial inactivation in the meantime. Furthermore, the outstanding in vivo bacteria-killing activity and wound-healing acceleration were demonstrated in a S. aureus-infected mouse skin defect model. Taken together, this bactericidal nanohybrid could achieve sustained antibiotic release and wipe out bacteria more effectively in a synergistic way, thus reducing the emergence of antibiotic resistance. This work holds great potential to advance the development of novel antibacterial agents and combinational strategies as a promising supplement of antibiotics in the near future.