Abstract: Antibiotics play important roles in infection treatment and prevention. However, the effectiveness of antibiotics is now threatened by the prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria. Furthermore, antibiotic abuse and residues in the environment cause serious health issues. In this study, a stimuli-responsive imprinted hydrogel was fabricated by using β-lactamase produced by bacteria for deactivating antibiotics as the template molecule. The imprinted hydrogel could initially trap β-lactamase excreted by drug-resistant bacteria, thus making bacteria sensitive to antibiotics. After the bactericidal treatment, the "imprinted sites" on the hydrogel could be reversibly abolished with a temperature stimulus, which resulted in the reactivation of β-lactamase to degrade antibiotic residues. We also present an example of the use of this antibacterial design to treat wound infection
Template and target information: protein, β-lactamase
Author keywords: antibiotics, antibiotic resistance, enzymes, molecular imprinting, Responsive hydrogels