Superoxide Radical-Mediated Self-Synthesized Au/MoO3-x Hybrids with Enhanced Peroxidase-like Activity and Photothermal Effect for Anti-MRSA Therapy

A rapid increase in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aurcus (MRSA) induced infection has been noticed in recent years and the biofilm formed by MRSA further delays wound healing, causing a high mortality rate. Hence, a safe and effective superoxide radical (O-2(center dot-)) mediated self-synthesis strategy is developed to prepare Au-doped MoO3-x (Au/MoO3-x) plasmonic-semiconductor hybrid for the elimination of MRSA mediated wound infection. The synthesis mechanism of Au NPs is systematically investigated, proving that O-2(center dot-) plays a key role in reduction of HAuCl4 into Au NPs in the presence of H-2O and O. Au-doped MoO3-x exhibits the improved photothermal conversion efficiency (similar to 52.40%) compared with MoO3-x (similar to 41.11%). Moreover, the peroxidase (POD)-like activity of Au/MoO3-x hybrid is higher than that of MoO(3-x )NPs, resulting in increased yield of highly toxic -OH. In combination with the enhanced photothermal and POD-like properties, Au/MoO(3-x )hybrid achieves efficient elimination of MRSA bacteria with eradication ratio of similar to 99.76%. Additionally, the as-prepared Au/MoO3-x NPs exhibit excellent biosafety, which is verified via in vitro and in vivo experiments. This study provides the basis for exploring MoO3-x-based hybrids via a green Or-mediated self-synthesis approach.

Automated summary

There has been a rapid increase in MRSA infections in recent years, with high mortality rates due to delayed wound healing caused by biofilms formed by MRSA. This study developed a self-synthesis strategy to prepare a plasmonic-semiconductor hybrid, Au-doped MoO3-x (Au/MoO3-x), for the elimination of MRSA infections. The hybrid exhibited high efficiency in eliminating MRSA bacteria and showed excellent biosafety.