Extracellular nucleic acid-triggered precision responsive antibacterial strategy

AIMS: The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in recent years has underscored the urgent need for novel, precision-targeted antibacterial strategies. To address this critical challenge, our study designed a responsive antibacterial system that achieves precise bacterial eradication by conjugating antibacterial agents to nucleic acid probes wherein drug release is specifically triggered by extracellular nucleic acids. METHODS AND RESULTS: This innovative design utilizes toehold-mediated strand displacement to enable single-nucleotide precision targeting of bacterial sequences, thereby ensuring highly specific and quantitative drug release. And drug release is specifically triggered by extracellular nucleic acids. Comprehensive evaluations, including bacterial growth inhibition curves, inhibition zone measurements, and fluorescence staining assays, demonstrated the exceptional stability and selectivity. Furthermore, the practicality of this strategy was validated in spiked environmental water samples, where significant antibacterial efficacy was observed, highlighting its real-world applicability. CONCLUSIONS: The assembly, identification, and drug release process of this new antibacterial strategy have been thoroughly verified, showing excellent stability and selectivity, and also having excellent effects on the actual environment.