Aggregation-Induced Emission Artificial Enzyme (AIEzyme) with DNase-Like Activity: Imaging and Matrix Cleavage for Combating Bacterial Biofilm

DNase-catalyzed hydrolysis of extracellular DNA (eDNA) have been widely employed to eradicate intractable biofilms. Although aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has become the ideal tool for killing planktonic bacteria, AIE luminogens (AIEgens) often lack DNase-mimetic activity, in order to suffer from poor anti-biofilm capacity. Here, an “AIEzyme”, a kind of AIE nanomaterial with enzyme-like activity, is designed and synthesized, where the AIEgens are used as the ligands of Zr-based coordination polymer nanoparticles. Not only do AIEzyme have enduring DNase-mimetic activity with high substrate affinity and low activation energy, but also structural rigidity-stabilized fluorescence. Due to the long-acting hydrolysis for eDNA in biofilm, AIEzyme can efficiently disorganize the established biofilms with good penetrability and realize the healing of superbugs-infected wound for at least seven days under only one dose of AIEzyme. Moreover, AIEzymes can be observed by virtue of their own AIE character, facilitating the study on self-positioning and residual amount of AIEzymes in wound. On the support of AIEzyme, we expect to explore an idea for the application development of AIEgen.