Glucose-Responsive and Analgesic Gel for Diabetic Subcutaneous Abscess Treatment by Simultaneously Boosting Photodynamic Therapy and Relieving Hypoxia

The treatment of diabetic abscess remains highly challenging due to the complex wound healing environment, which includes bacterial infection, hypoxia, and pain, severely compromising patients' quality of life. Developing effective treatment strategies to address these multifaceted issues continues to pose significant challenges. In this study, a glucose-triggered gel with self-producing oxygen, photodynamic behavior, and analgesic properties is employed to address the aforementioned problems. The gel utilizes the cascade reaction of glucose oxidase and catalase to convert the excessive glucose in diabetic abscess tissue into oxygen, alleviate the hypoxia in the infected tissue, and ensure the occurrence of hypoxia photodynamic behavior to generate sufficient reactive oxygen species (ROS) to combat pathogenic bacteria. Simultaneously, borneol within the gel can not only enhance the sensitivity of bacteria to ROS by regulating the oxidative stress system but also augment the antibacterial effect of ROS. Moreover, borneol can serve as an analgesic to alleviate pain in patients. In vivo experiments have demonstrated that the combination of photodynamic and borneol therapy can eliminate the bacteria at the abscess site and enable the abscess to heal completely within 12 days. Therefore, this study established a glucose-responsive gel for a combined therapy strategy of hypoxic improvement photodynamic therapy and borneol to facilitate wound healing in diabetic abscesses.