A photo-thermal nanocomposite capable of relieving inflammatory response to compete multidrug-resistant pseudomonas aeruginosa infection

Lung infection associated with drug-resistant P. aeruginosa and their wide spread have become a serious problem to public health. Effective antibacterial strategy without antibiotics must be developed for treatment of these infections. To combat pneumonia infected by multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa (MRPA), a novel antibacterial nanocomoposite of [email protected]rPEGMA was prepared. [email protected]rPEGMA could bind with P. aeruginosa through the interaction betweeen PBArPEGMA and bacteria proved by alizarin red assay. The nanocomposite could relieve inflammtory response in MRPA-infected macrophages by downregulating MAPK and NFκB signal-transduction pathways. [email protected]rPEGMA showed well photo-thermal conversion capacity leading to the temperature increasing from 20 to 80 °C under near-infrared (NIR) irradiation for 5 min. The photo-thermal capacity endowed the nanocomposites efficient antibacterial activity against MRPA. Simultaneously, [email protected]rPEGMA with NIR irradiation could kill biofilm bacteria while traditional antibiotics were non-effetive. [email protected]rPEGMA with NIR irradiation could treat MRPA-related lung infection. The nanocomposite with NIR reduced the inflammatory cytokines of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 by downregulating the MAPK signal pathway in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids. The number of P. aeruginosa and expression of NF-κB p65 in lung also decreased. Above all, our study provides a non-antibiotic therapeutic strategy in clinical application and demonstrated that [email protected]rPEGMA with NIR irradiation showed a potential treatment for drug-resistant P. aeruginosa infection in Lung.