A New Theranostic Platform Against Gram‐Positive Bacteria Based on Near‐Infrared‐Emissive Aggregation‐Induced Emission Nanoparticles

Abstract

Infections induced by Gram‐positive bacteria pose a great threat to public health. Antibiotic therapy, as the first chosen strategy against Gram‐positive bacteria, is inevitably associated with antibiotic resistance selection. Novel therapeutic strategies for the discrimination and inactivation of Gram‐positive bacteria are thus needed. Here, a specific type of aggregation‐induced emission luminogen (AIEgen) with near‐infrared fluorescence emission as a novel antibiotic‐free therapeutic strategy against Gram‐positive bacteria is proposed. With the combination of a positively charged group into a highly twisted architecture, self‐assembled AIEgens (AIE nanoparticles (NPs)) at a relatively low concentration (5 µm) exhibited specific binding and photothermal effect against living Gram‐positive bacteria both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, toxicity assays demonstrated excellent biocompatibility of AIE NPs at this concentration. All these properties make the AIE NPs as a novel generation of theranostic platform for combating Gram‐positive bacteria and highlight their promising potential for in vivo tracing of such bacteria.