Fig. 5: IR-responsive drug release properties of hydrogels modified by chiral dendritic nanocrystals. | Nature Communications

Fig. 5: IR-responsive drug release properties of hydrogels modified by chiral dendritic nanocrystals.

From: Chiral nanocrystals grown from MoS2 nanosheets enable photothermally modulated enantioselective release of antimicrobial drugs

Fig. 5

a Photos of agarose hydrogels and an aerogel doped with nanocrystals. b UV-vis-NIR spectra showing the different optical absorption spectra of the cracked nanocrystals (CNCs), DNCs-1, and DNCs-2 hydrogels. c Temperature changes of aerogels and hydrogels doped with various nanostructures before and after IR (808 nm) treatments. d SEM image of the hybrid aerogel (0.8% agarose) after pretreatment with gold spraying. e Schematic illustration showing the composition of the hybrid hydrogel packed with cargo and release of the cargo from the hybrid hydrogel based on molecular diffusion. f Saturation loads of levofloxacin for diverse Au/MoS2 nanostructures. P < 0.05; the significant difference in the levofloxacin loading efficiencies for (S)-DNCs and (R)-DNCs nanostructures. g Photos of levofloxacin-loaded DNCs-2 hydrogels covered by aqueous solution in the upper layer and UV-irradiated levofloxacin-loaded DNCs-2 hydrogels after various times for the IR treatments. h Drug release ratios from levofloxacin-loaded DNCs-2 hydrogels to the upper-layer aqueous solutions under IR treatment (red curve), which were compared with incubation at 37 °C (black curve). The loading amount of levofloxacin was 50.00 μg mL−1. i Release ratios for levofloxacin (green bars) and racemic ofloxacin (blue bars) on a blank agarose hydrogel and different Au/MoS2 nanostructure-doped agarose hydrogels after IR treatment for 10 min. Hydrogels were preloaded with levofloxacin and ofloxacin (50.00 μg mL−1), respectively. P < 0.001; significant difference of (R)-DNCs-2 and (S)-DNCs-2 doped hydrogels in ofloxacin racemate and levofloxacin release ratios. c, f, h, l Error bars representing the standard deviations (SDs) of independent experiments (n = 3). Data are presented as mean values ± SDs. f, i Statistical analyes were performed via one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison tests. b, c, f, h, and i Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

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