Silver Mineralized Protein Hydrogel with Intrinsic Cell Proliferation Promotion and Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial Properties for Accelerated Infected Wound Healing

The presence of multidrug-resistant bacteria has challenged the clinical treatment of bacterial infection. There is a real need for the development of novel biocompatible materials with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities. Antimicrobial hydrogels show great potential in infected wound healing but are still being challenged. Herein, broad-spectrum antibacterial and mechanically tunable amyloid-based hydrogels based on self-assembly and local mineralization of silver nanoparticles are reported. The mineralized hydrogels are biocompatible and have the advantages of sustained release of silver, prolonged antimicrobial effect, and improved adhesion capacity. Moreover, the mineralized hydrogels display a significant antimicrobial effect against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria in cells and mice by inducing membrane damage and reactive oxygen species toxicity in bacteria. In addition, the mineralized hydrogels can rapidly accelerate wound healing by the synergy between their antibacterial activity and intrinsic improvement for cell proliferation and migration. This study provides a modular approach to developing a multifunctional protein hydrogel platform based on biomolecule-coordinated self-assembly for a wide range of biomedical applications. A silver-mineralized amyloid hydrogel is fabricated by in situ mineralization based on a self-assembling fusion protein containing a mussel adhesive protein and amyloid peptide. The resulting mineralized hydrogel exhibits excellent mechanical, adhesive, and antimicrobial properties, showing high performance in the promotion of cell proliferation and infected wound healing. image