Nature photosensitizer self-templating strategy to synergize with photothermal activity for antibacterial therapy

Nanoplatform plays a key role in addressing the drug-resistant bacteria which often leads to a critical increasing threat to personal healthcare systems. Although the effective antibacterial nanoplatforms with PDT/PTT bi-activities have been reported, the biosafe strategy to improve the therapy efficiency and reduce the side effects remains a challenge. This work reports a Cur@Au/PDA nanorod which exhibits both photodynamic and photothermal activities by a simple in situ polymerization method. The natural Cur (Curcumin) nanorod not only played as the core template but also acted as the photosensitizer to show PDT activity. The Au/PDA hybrid protection layer was coated on the surface of Cur to provide the PTT functionality. The Cur@Au/PDA nanorod possesses good stability, excellent photodynamic activity, and high photothermal conversion efficiency, thus it exhibits PDT/PTT coupling antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus under the simultaneous application of 808 nm NIR and Xe lamp. The sterilizing rate can reach to 100% when the concentration of Cur@Au/PDA is 120 μg/mL. This work supplies an easy preparation strategy for core shell structured PDT-PTT coupling inhibitory nanoplatform which has wide potential in antibacterial application.