Combating bacterial infection by in situ self-assembly of AIEgen-peptide conjugate

Antibiotic abuse and the resulting resistance to antibiotics are serious problems faced by the world. Methods for fast and precise detection of bacterial infections are in urgent need. Here, we report a sensitive and selective probe for diagnosis and treatment of Gram-positive bacterial infection. The probe is made of self-assembling short peptide as the skeleton, a luminogen with aggregation-induced emission (AIEgen) as the responsive fluorescence turn-on motif and vancomycin as the targeting group. In vitro assembly of the probe can turn on its fluorescence and simultaneously enhance reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. The probe shows great selectivity and sensitivity to Gram-positive bacteria detection in vitro by targeted self-assembly on bacterial surface. In vivo imaging studies of a myositis-bearing BALB/c nude mice model indicate that the probe is suitable for diagnosis and treatment of Gram-positive bacterial infection. The integration of AIEgen and self-assembling peptides represents a potential strategy for disease diagnosis and treatment.