Cysteine-Derived Carbon Dots Hydrogels with Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Therapy for Infected Wound Healing

at 62.5 μg/mL. Importantly, the unique ROS-mediated antibacterial mechanism of Cys-CDs induces nonspecific oxidative damage to bacterial components, thereby fundamentally circumventing the evolution of resistance. Subsequently, Cys-CDs were covalently integrated into an alginate hydrogel matrix to construct a sustained-release platform (CCDs/SA). The resultant hydrogel retains robust photocatalytic antibacterial activity, demonstrating excellent performance in inhibiting biofilm formation and eradicating mature biofilms. Notably, the CCDs/SA hydrogel exerts selective bactericidal activity through differential enzymatic modulation, effectively eliminating bacteria while simultaneously promoting mammalian cell proliferation and migration. In an infected full-thickness skin wound model, the hydrogel combined with visible-light irradiation achieved near-complete bacterial eradication (99.07%) by day 7 and accelerated wound closure to 97.35% within 14 days, significantly outperforming commercial antibacterial dressings. Collectively, this work establishes a nonantibiotic therapeutic strategy for engineering visible-light-driven platforms, holding great promise for the clinical management of infected wounds.