Plenty of nano-antimicrobial materials have been developed successively, aiming to address severe clinical challenges such as wound healing disorders and high postoperative mortality rates caused by drug-resistant bacterial infections. However, their reliance on external stimuli (light, thermal energy, or exogenous H2O2 addition) for bactericidal activation severely hampers clinical translation from bench to bedside. Herein, we report an engineered Cu/CeO2 nanoplatelet (NP) system that functions as a stimulus-independent, time-dependent nano-antibiotic against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), while also exhibiting broad-spectrum antibacterial activity. In a skin wound model infected with MRSA, topical application of only 1 μg/mL achieved near-complete wound closure within 10 days. The satisfactory therapeutic effect is concluded: (1) Cu/CeO2 NPs continuously release Cu2+, which damages the integrity of bacterial cell membranes and achieves efficient sterilization. (2) The antioxidant stress capacity, peroxidase, and catalase-like activity effectively alleviate oxidative stress and hypoxia conditions in the infected microenvironment, and synergistically exert multiple biological effects such as anti-inflammatory, promoting collagen deposition and the formation of new blood vessels. This study not only provides a feasible pathway for the clinical application of antibacterial nano-materials, but also offers theoretical support and practical examples for the rational design of multifunctional nano-antibiotics.
Yan et al. (Thu,) studied this question.