Near-infrared light-responsive and antibacterial injectable hydrogels with antioxidant activity based on a Dopamine-functionalized Gellan Gum for wound healing

The development of wound dressings with combined antioxidant, antibacterial and tissue adhesion functions has been a difficult medical task for the treatment of wound infections. We synthetized a dopamine and PEG functionalized Gellan Gum (GG) to produce an injectable hydrogel with radical scavenging activity having both specific and aspecific antibiotic/antimicrobial properties. Using starting GG with different molecular weights, we obtained two derivatives that have been used to prepare the gel precursor dispersion, that undergoes gelation in the presence of colistin and dried microparticles (MPs) functionalized on the surface with polydopamine (pDA). Both were used to dope the hydrogel, increase the radical scavenger activity and impart near-infrared light (NIR) responsiveness. Indeed, with an irradiation of 810 nm, the incorporated microparticles exhibit photothermal transformation properties and improve the release of antibiotics on demand. The combination of photothermal and antibiotic therapy with synergistic antibacterial action acts on Pseudomonas aeruginosa and leads to a bactericidal effect in a few hours, while on Staphylococcus aureus there is an effect of inhibition of growth over time due only to the hyperthermic effect. We believe this study provides a promising method for fabricating a multifunctional injectable hydrogel for the potential treatment of infected skin wounds.