Abstract

Abstract

Timely and accurate assessment of wounds during the healing process is crucial for proper diagnosis and treatment. Conventional wound dressings lack both real-time monitoring capabilities and active therapeutic functionalities, limiting their effectiveness in dynamic wound environments. Currently, antibiotics are mostly used to treat bacterial infections, negatively resulting in the emergence of numerous drug-resistant bacteria demanding the development of alternative strategies.
My MSc research focuses on a proof-of-concept approach exploring the unique emission properties and antimicrobial activities of carbon nanodots (CNDs), for simultaneous detection of wound healing progress and treatment of bacterial infections. This approach centers on the fabrication of well-defined CND-embedded PVA e-spun nanofibrous mats, which are crosslinked with degradable boronic ester (BE) crosslinks. The BE-CND/PVA mats exhibit stimuli-responsive degradation to pHs and hydrogen peroxide and pH-responsive release of CNDs allowing for both localized antibacterial action and real-time optical detection. Promisingly, the mats turn out to be biocompatible with skin cells and exhibit antimicrobial activities against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Furthermore, they showcase great potential for real-time monitoring of wound pH to assess the wound status.
Overall, these results suggest that BE-CND/PVA mats could significantly enhance wound healing by providing localized therapeutic action, reducing the risk of bacterial resistance and enabling non-invasive monitoring of wound progress.