Dynamic injectable photothermal/chemotherapeutic hydrogel for prevention and treatment of local wound infections

Various dressings have been developed for the prevention and treatment of wound infections, but the complex structures and manufacturing processes designed to achieve powerful functionalities have impeded their clinical application. Herein, a dynamic injectable photothermal/chemotherapeutic hydrogel has been facilely established through mixing gellan gum (GG), indocyanine green (ICG) and amikacin (AMI) aqueous solutions at 80°C and cooling to room temperature. The hydrogel displayed a precise structure with 1.5% of GG containing ICG content of 100 μg/mL and AMI content of 1 mg/mL, and exhibited favorable injectable, self-healing, and adhesive capabilities as well as superior swelling and moisturizing properties through GG’s features. Furthermore, the GG also endowed the hydrogel with the capability to efficiently release drugs in response to the microenvironment (pH 5.0, 7.4 and 8.0) of both infected and uninfected wounds. These exceptional physicochemical properties and combined effects of chemotherapy and PTT facilitated the satisfactory in vitro biocompatibility and antibacterial capability as well as wound healing acceleration ability. Therefore, such a dynamic injectable photothermal/chemotherapeutic hydrogel paves the way toward easily clinical transformation for prevention and treatment of local wound infections.