An intelligent vancomycin release system for preventing surgical site infections of bone tissues

Preventing surgical site infections (SSIs) of implants has drawn significant attention in both basic and clinical research. Implants with convenient preparation methods and intelligent drug release capabilities are highly needed to resist bacterial infection. Herein, we designed an intelligent drug-release system, which can be instantly incorporated with implants during the surgical process. The drug-release system involves β-glycerophosphate (β-GP) and chitosan (CS) as a thermosensitive hydrogel for instant construction onto implants and hyaluronic acid (HA) as a trigger to release vancomycin hydrochloride (VH) on demand. Tertiary calcium phosphate (TCP) scaffolds (implants) are vacuum-adsorbed in a solution of the intelligent vancomycin-release system (VH-HA-CS/β-GP), followed by heating for 40 min at 80 °C to form VH-HA-CS/β-GP@TCP. The drug-release hydrogel intelligently releases vancomycin depending on the concentration of hyaluronidase, which is secreted by Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) in infection sites. Furthermore, VH-HA-CS/β-GP@TCP showed effective antibacterial properties in vitro and in vivo. The VH-HA-CS/β-GP drug-release system can be conveniently prepared during surgery for intelligently preventing SSIs in bone tissue.