Bacterial infection is a key factor affecting wound healing. Conventional treatments might lead to the widespread emergence of drug-resistant bacteria due to the long-term and excessive use of antibiotics. It is necessary to develop an antibiotic-free method for effective treatment of bacterial wound infections. In this work, we constructed an antibiotic-free polysaccharide-based hydrogel dressing (ATB) with near-infrared light-actuated on-demand botanicals release and hyperthermia for the synergistic treatment of wound infections. The ATB hydrogel dressing was made up of agarose as a support matrix, berberine hydrochloride as the active botanicals and TA–Fe(III) nanoparticles as NIR laser-activated photothermal reagents. The ATB hydrogel dressing showed spatiotemporal botanicals release and excellent photothermal properties with NIR irradiation. With the results of in vitro and in vivo antibacterial experiments, the antibiotic-free ATB hydrogel could synergistically eliminate bacteria and accelerate wound healing. Overall, the near-infrared light-responsive ATB hydrogel could provide a promising antibiotic-free strategy for the treatment of bacterial wound infections.

With the long-term widespread overuse of antibiotics, a large number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria have emerged and become a serious threat to healthcare systems. As an alternative strategy, near-infrared light (NIR)-actuated photothermal treatment has been developed for killing antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Although promising, the widespread applications of photothermal antibacterial platforms face great challenges due to the skin-harmful high laser irradiation. In this work, a novel NIR-responsive hydrogel membrane for effective photothermal sterilization upon light irradiation at skin-permissible intensity has been successfully prepared using a sodium alginate-based hydrogel membrane containing tannic acid–Fe(III) compounds (STF). The as-prepared STF displayed excellent mechanical capacity and fabricability. More importantly, the as-prepared STF revealed superior photothermal efficiency under a low-intensity NIR irradiation (0.3 W cm⁻²), which was below the maximum permissible exposure of skin (0.33 W cm⁻²). In addition, the STF showed the excellent performance of photothermal sterilization for MRSA both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, the STF showed good biocompatibility. Based on the simple synthesis method, outstanding mechanical properties, excellent photothermal sterilization performance and good biocompatibility, the STF could be a promising wound dressing for antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

Due to at least 3 years of cultivation, Panax ginseng (ginseng) is susceptible to being attacked by pathogens which severely affect its quality and yield. Compared with other diseases of ginseng, Phytophthora blight caused by Phytophthora cactorum (P. cactorum) can spread rapidly and destroy almost the entire plant of ginseng, such as leaves, stems, and roots. However, little research was focused on this area, and how P. cactorum affected the metabolic profile of ginseng is still obscure. In the current study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of metabolomics and transcriptomics to compare the differences in health and P. cactorum-affected ginseng leaves and stems. Metabolome analysis revealed that 110 and 113 significant differential metabolites were observably disturbed separately in ginseng leaves and stems. Transcriptome analysis demonstrated that 6424 and 9508 genes had remarkable variation in ginseng leaves and stems. Using conjoint analysis, we also revealed the changes in pathways “Alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism”, “Glycine, serine and threonine metabolism”, and “Biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids” and “Plant hormone signal transduction” in ginseng response to the P. cactorum. The current work provides an overview of the alteration of metabolic profile and gene expression profiles in ginseng leaves and stems in response to P. cactorum affection, which may help to further screen out the mechanism of plant-pathogen interaction at the molecular level.