Reactive Microneedle Patches with Antibacterial and Dead Bacteria-Trapping Abilities for Skin Infection Treatment

Bacterial skin infections are highly prevalent and pose a significant public health threat. Current strategies are primarily focused on the inhibition of bacterial activation while disregarding the excessive inflammation induced by dead bacteria remaining in the body and the effect of the acidic microenvironment during therapy. In this study, a novel dual-functional MgB microparticles integrated microneedle (MgB MN) patch is presented to kill bacteria and eliminate dead bacteria for skin infection management. The MgB microparticles not only can produce a local alkaline microenvironment to promote the proliferation and migration of fibroblasts and keratinocytes, but also achieve >5 log bacterial inactivation. Besides, the MgB microparticles effectively mitigate dead bacteria-induced inflammation through interaction with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). With the incorporation of these MgB microparticles, the resultant MgB MN patches effectively kill bacteria and capture dead bacteria, thereby mitigating these bacteria-induced inflammation. Therefore, the MgB MN patches show good therapeutic efficacy in managing animal bacterial skin infections, including abscesses and wounds. These results indicate that reactive metal borides-integrated microneedle patches hold great promise for the treatment of clinical skin infections.