pH-responsive curcumin-based nanoscale ZIF-8 combining chemophotodynamic therapy for excellent antibacterial activity

Xiaofeng Meng; Jingwei Guan; Shanshan Lai; Liming Fang; Jianyu Su

doi:10.1039/d1ra09450e

pH-responsive curcumin-based nanoscale ZIF-8 combining chemophotodynamic therapy for excellent antibacterial activity

RSC Adv. 2022 Mar 30;12(16):10005-10013. doi: 10.1039/d1ra09450e. eCollection 2022 Mar 25.

Authors

Xiaofeng Meng^{1

2}, Jingwei Guan^{1

2}, Shanshan Lai^{1

2}, Liming Fang^{3

4

5}, Jianyu Su^{1

2

3

6}

Affiliations

¹ School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology Guangzhou 510640 Guangdong China jysu@scut.edu.cn.
² Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Natural Products and Product Safety Guangzhou 510640 Guangdong China.
³ Sino-Singapore International Joint Research Institute Guangzhou 510700 Guangdong China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Guangdong Province, School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology Guangzhou 510640 China.
⁵ National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction, South China University of Technology Guangzhou 510006 China.
⁶ Overseas Expertise Introduction Center for Discipline Innovation of Food Nutrition and Human Health (111 Center) Guangzhou 510640 Guangdong China.

Abstract

Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) is a highly attractive therapy due to its advantages of being a non-antibiotic procedure for reducing drug-resistant microbes. Curcumin (CCM) has been considered as a natural photosensitizer for PDT with prominent antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-proliferative activity. However, its excellent biological and pharmacological activities are limited because of its low solubility, rapid metabolization and instability. Herein, we reported a promising agent based on CCM-incorporated into zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF@CCM). The as-prepared nanoparticle exhibited high drug loading capability (11.57%) and drug loading encapsulation (82.76%). Additionally, ZIF@CCM displayed a pH-responsive drug release behavior and chemophotodynamic therapy for excellent antibacterial activity. The underlying mechanism elucidated that Zn²⁺ released from ZIF-8 increased the permeability of the bacterial cell membrane with leakages of K⁺. The overproduction of extracellular ROS further resulted in the disrupted bacterial cell membrane and distorted bacterial morphology. Thus, ZIF@CCM-mediated photodynamic activation might be a promising treatment strategy for microbial inactivation.