Bacterial infections, especially drug-resistant bacterial infections, are increasingly threatening human health and social medical and health systems, and the irregular use of traditional antibiotics can easily induce bacteria to develop drug resistance. Bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics have become one of the biggest challenges in public health, and there is an urgent need to develop more effective antibacterial materials and solutions.

 

In order to achieve efficient treatment of drug-resistant bacterial infections, researchers used weak acid-responsive orthoester polymers as stabilizers, and reduced silver nitrate in situ to prepare silver nanoclusters with uniform size. The study found that the silver nanoclusters quickly dissociated into hydrophobic silver nanoparticles when exposed to the acidic microenvironment of bacteria, and instantly released a large amount of silver ions to achieve rapid sterilization. Subsequently, the silver nanoparticles are reassembled near the bacteria, targeted to gather on the surface of the bacteria, and the silver ions are released for a long time to achieve continuous sterilization. Compared with non-responsive normal silver nanoparticles, the weak acid-responsive recombination effect of silver nanoclusters greatly improves the targeted antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli, while reducing the amount of silver used.

 

Haohong Medical Technology