A novel microbial infection‐responsive drug release system

The aim of this study was to construct a novel drug delivery system suitable for controlled release of antibiotics. There is a need for devices that release antibiotics only during microbial infection, because prophylactic or prolonged use of antibiotics leads to serious problems, such as renal and liver toxicity and the emergence of drug‐resistant bacteria (e.g., meticillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus). We found previously that Staphylococcus aureus‐infected wound fluid showed high thrombin‐like activity; therefore, in this study we designed an antibiotic release system triggered by thrombin activity. We synthesized an insoluble polymer–drug conjugate in which gentamicin was bound to poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel through a newly developed thrombin‐sensitive peptide linker. The conjugate released gentamicin when it was incubated with Staphylococcus aureus‐infected wound fluid, with thrombin and leucine aminopeptidase, or with human plasma and Ca2+, whereas no biologically active gentamicin was released when the conjugate was incubated with noninfected wound fluid, with leucine aminopeptidase alone, with thrombin alone, or with plasma. Furthermore, the conjugate reduced the bacterial number in an animal model of Staphylococcus aureus infection. These results demonstrated that the conjugate has sufficient specificity and excellent potential as a stimulus‐responsive, controlled drug release system.