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A combinatory strategy is explored here to eradicate multidrug-resistant\n                    <jats:italic>Staphlococcus aureus<\/jats:italic>\n                    and\n                    <jats:italic>Pseudomonas aeruginosa<\/jats:italic>\n                    including planktonic cells, established biofilms, and persisters as high as 7.5\u2009log bacteria in less than 30\u2009min. Blue-laser and thymol together rapidly sterilized acute infected or biofilm-associated wounds and successfully prevented systematic dissemination in mice. Mechanistically, blue-laser and thymol instigated oxidative bursts exclusively in bacteria owing to abundant proporphyrin-like compounds produced in bacteria over mammalian cells, which transformed harmless thymol into blue-laser sensitizers, thymoquinone and thymohydroquinone. Photo-excitations of thymoquinone and thymohydroquinone augmented reactive oxygen species production and initiated a torrent of cytotoxic events in bacteria while completely sparing the host tissue. The investigation unravels a previously unappreciated property of thymol as a pro-photosensitizer analogous to a prodrug that is activated only in bacteria.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s42003-021-01956-y","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,25]],"date-time":"2021-03-25T07:06:58Z","timestamp":1616656018000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":35,"title":["Bacteria-specific pro-photosensitizer kills multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"4","author":[{"given":"Min","family":"Lu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yongli","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5456-5283","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mei X.","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"1956_CR1","unstructured":"World Health Organization. 2019 Antibacterial Agents in Clinical Development: an Analysis of the Antibacterial Clinical Development Pipeline. 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