Gold nanoclusters encapsulated microneedle patches with antibacterial and self-monitoring capacities for wound management

Abstract

The management of infected wounds is always of great significance and urgency in clinical and biomedical fields. Recent efforts in this area are focusing on the development of functional wound patches with effective antibacterial, drug delivery, and sensor properties. Here, we present novel hyaluronic acid (HA) microneedle patches with these features by encapsulating aminobenzeneboronic acid-modified gold nanoclusters (A-GNCs) for infected wound management. The A-GNCs loaded microneedle patches were derived from negative-mold replication and showed high mechanical strength to penetrate the skin. The release of the A-GNCs was realized by the degradation of HA, and the self-monitor of the released actives was based on the dynamic bright orange fluorescence emitted from A-GNCs under ultraviolet radiation. As the A-GNCs could destroy bacteria membranes, the microneedle patches were with excellent in vitro antibiosis ability. Based on these features, we have demonstrated the bacteria inhibition, residual drug self-monitoring, and wound healing promotion abilities of the microneedle patches in Escherichia coli- or Staphylococcus aureus-infected wound management. These results indicated the great potential of such A-GNCs loaded microneedle patches for clinical applications.