Healing Diabetic Ulcers with MoO_3-X Nanodots Possessing Intrinsic ROS-Scavenging and Bacteria-Killing Capacities

Diabetic ulcers (DUs) appearing as chronic wounds are difficult to heal due to the oxidative stress in the wound microenvironment and their high susceptibility to bacterial infection. A routine treatment combining surgical debridement with anti-infection therapy is widely used for treating DUs in the clinic, but hardly offers a satisfying wound healing outcome. It is known that a long-term antibiotic treatment may also lead to the drug resistance of pathogens. To address these challenges, new strategies combining both reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging and bacterial sterilization have been proposed for fighting against DUs. Following this idea, oxygen deficient molybdenum-based nanodots (MoO_3-X ) for healing the DUs are reported. The ROS scavenging ability of MoO_3-X nanodots is investigated and the antibacterial property of the nanodots is also demonstrated. The systematic cell and animal experimental results indicate that the MoO_3-X nanodots can effectively reduce inflammation, promote epithelial cell regeneration, accelerate angiogenesis, and facilitate DUs recovery. Most importantly, they present excellent capacity to diminish infection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, manifesting the potent application prospect of MoO_3-X nanodots for diabetic wound therapy.