AIE-Active Glycomimetics Triggered Bacterial Agglutination and Membrane-Intercalating toward Efficient Photodynamic...

Opportunistic infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) are particularly difficult to treat due to the altered membrane permeability and inherent resistance to conventional antibiotics. Here, a cationic glycomimetics is designed and synthesized with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics namely TPyGal, which self-assembles into the spherical aggregates with galactosylated surface. TPyGal aggregates can effectively cluster P. aeruginosa through multivalent carbohydrate-lectin interactions and auxiliary electrostatic interactions and subsequently trigger membrane-intercalating, which results in efficient photodynamic eradication of P. aeruginosa under white light irradiation by in situ singlet oxygen (¹ O₂ ) burst to disrupt bacterial membrane. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that TPyGal aggregates promote the healing of infected wounds, indicating the potential for clinical treatment of P. aeruginosa infections.