Poly-quercetin-based nanoVelcro as a multifunctional wound dressing for effective treatment of chronic wound infections

Comprehensive wound dressings for bacterial wound treatment requires a combination of antibacterial, antioxidative, and anti-inflammatory effects and endotoxin neutralization. Here, we report a novel nanoVelcro dressing made from quercetin (QNV) through alkaline-mediated catalytic polymerization and crosslinking. These dressings can effectively inhibit the growth of Gram-negative, Gram-positive and multidrug-resistant bacteria in complicated medium (e.g., human plasma) through ultrastrong bacterial wrapping. QNV shows a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 10 μg mL⁻¹ against the tested bacteria, which is 5-fold lower than that of monomeric quercetin. In addition to its superior antibacterial activity, QNV exhibits the inherent antioxidative and inflammatory activities of quercetin. More importantly, QNV wrapping further prevents bacteria from releasing toxins during infection, inhibiting the subsequent inflammatory response. QNV, in contrast to silver nanoparticles and 3 M wound care dressings, effectively inhibits bacterial growth and wound inflammation in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) − infected wounds in diabetic mice by accelerating the wound closure rate. Our results reveal that the use of QNV in the design of an ultrastrong bacterial binder is promising for the development of multifunctional wound dressings for the treatment of chronic infectious wounds.