A Degradable Antibacterial Skin Patch of Flexible Terahertz Metamaterials Made from Silk Proteins

We report a silk-based, antibiotics-loaded flexible terahertz (THz) metamaterial device as a degradable antibacterial skin patch. Silk is favored as a flexible substrate for controlled drug release when doped with appropriate pharmaceutical molecules. Combined with THz metamaterial resonators, the antibacterial silk metamaterial devices can precisely degrade at a pre-defined sequence and rate. The extent of drug release, which correlates to the degradation of the metamaterial skin patch, can be monitored by characterizing the resonant responses during degradation. For proof-of-concept, these devices were mounted on the wound of Sprague-Dawley rats which were infected with Staphylococcus aureus. The drug release was monitored in real-time and the results indicated the effectiveness of the therapy in promoting wound healing. The demonstration of silk-based implantable/degradable metamaterial devices provides opportunites for in-vivo sensing and drug release applications.