Superhydrophobic ROS biocatalytic metal coatings for the rapid healing of diabetic wounds

In diabetic patients, hyperglycemia-induced elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation severely impairs chronic wound healing by causing cellular component oxidation, inducing DNA damage, triggering cell death, exacerbating inflammatory responses, disrupting vascular endothelial function, reducing local blood supply, and inhibiting angiogenesis. This cascade results in a vicious cycle that delays the healing process. In this study, we developed a novel multifunctional composite dressing by depositing a transition-metal catalytic coating onto a superhydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane layer via magnetron sputtering. Two coatings were developed based on vanadium-ruthenium-boron (VRuB) intermetallic and VRu intermetallic compounds, which functioned as intermetallic compounds and exhibited various enzyme-like activities. The VRuB coating exhibited particularly prominent catalase-like activity (maximal reaction velocity (V_max) of 48.53 × 10⁻⁶ M s⁻¹; turnover number of 7.66 s⁻¹). Experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations revealed that B incorporation significantly improved catalytic performance. The artificial enzyme spray-coating process retained superhydrophobicity at the wound-contacting interface while enhancing the ROS-scavenging capabilities. Biological experiments demonstrated that the coating exhibited excellent biocompatibility and effective ROS-scavenging characteristics. These benefits were attributed to its synergistic properties, including its anti-adhesion characteristics, unidirectional drainage, moisturizing effects, and ROS elimination, which collectively promoted wound healing, especially for diabetic wound healing. The material showed promise for other applications requiring localized ROS scavenging while maintaining interfacial biomechanical properties.