Electron competition in azobenzene programs infection-adaptive antibacterial therapy.

Electron competition in an azobenzene reductive network programs oxygen-gradient–dependent kinetics, with electron-rich azobenzenes rapidly disassembling under severe hypoxia and electron-withdrawing ones sustaining release under mild hypoxia.

• Why it matters: Binary trigger-activation antibacterial systems can fail as infection microenvironments evolve, promoting persistent infection and resistance development.
• What they did: The study built an azobenzene-based kinetic regulatory system where oxygen competes as an electron acceptor, partitioning electron transfer between azo reduction and oxygen consumption, and varied substituent electronic structures to tune reduction propensity.
• The result: The electronically programmed kinetics produced infection state–adaptive nanoscale dissociation and drug-release profiles, and the same electronic features also reduced the reactivity and toxicity of reductive metabolites.

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