AIE-active PVA/berberine antibacterial hydrogel for wound healing, visual monitoring pH and dehydration

The antibacterial hydrogels have attracted a significant amount of interest for preventing bacterial infection in wound healing. However, irreversible antibiotic resistance and lagging detection of wound infection are still current research pain points for hydrogel wound dressings. This study successfully prepared and characterized a novel aggregation-induced PVA/SA/BBR hydrogel. BBR confers significant antibacterial potential to PVA/SA/BBR hydrogels avoiding the use of antibiotics. The results indicate that PVA/SA/BBR hydrogels displayed antibacterial activity against S. aureus , enhanced wound healing process, negligible cytotoxicity, and low hemolytic activity (< 5%). Molecular docking analysis indicate that BBR could inhibit the activity of FabH of E. coli and S. aureus , with a respective binding energy of -9.0185 and -8.4037 kcal/mol. Moreover, the real-time in situ monitoring and quantifying of wound pH levels could be realized by RGB signals collected and transformed from the visible-fluorescent images. PVA/SA/BBR hydrogels also provided significant fluorescent signals visible to the naked eye due to the AIE effect of BBR when the hydrogel severely loses water. All of these signals suggested anti-infective therapy and hydrogel replacement. Therefore, PVA/SA/BBR hydrogels as efficient non-antibiotic-dependent wound dressings with significant therapeutic effect on skin wounds provide potential applications in wound healing, flexible wearable sensing and drug delivery.