Aminoglycoside‐Based Biomaterials: From Material Design to Antibacterial and Gene Delivery Applications

Abstract Aminoglycosides are a family of naturally isolated or chemically semi‐synthesized antibiotics consisting of aminocyclitols with several amino and saccharide units. The unique molecule structures render aminoglycosides promising building blocks with high reactivity to perform various non‐covalent and covalent reactions, and they are further employed to rationally fabricate versatile materials, such as hydrogels, amphiphiles, hyperbranched polymers, biointerfaces, and nanoparticles. Despite aminoglycosides are widely used in clinics to treat bacterial infections, almost all the efforts are focused on molecular modifications to reduce their toxicities and overcome antibiotic resistance, while their actions as building blocks to construct biomaterials are scarcely discussed. In this feature article, the current progress on the rational design, emergent properties, and promising biological applications of aminoglycoside‐based biomaterials are summarized. It is believed that this paper may provide guidance to develop new biomaterials using natural functional molecules as building blocks, and start a new life of aminoglycosides from the view of materials science.