Next Generation Wound Gel Found Promising In Treating And Preventing Infections

Most infected wounds are due to bacterial colonization and the most common infection-causing bacteria is staphylococcus aureus and certain other types of staphylococci. Researchers have now come up with a new treatment for wounds that can prevent bacterial infections.

Experts at Lund University, Sweden have developed a new hydrogel-based on a body’s natural peptide defense. The gel has been reported to treat and prevent wound infections.

Their new formulation is designed to kill multi-resistant bacteria, which is increasing ever since antibiotic resistance has been on the rise.

"The ability to effectively heal wounds is key for our survival in evolutionary terms. There are peptides in wounds that defend against bacteria and prevent their toxins from causing inflammation. The gel is based on these natural defense mechanisms and has had a dual effect -- by both preventing as well as treating wound infections," Science Daily quoted Artur Schmidtchen, professor of dermatology and venereology at Lund University as saying.

With the ever-increasing need for new treatment options for wound healing that can reduce complications in patients with several types of wounds including surgical wounds, burns, or those wounds that do not heal easily. Present treatment options are primarily directed particularly at the wound-causing bacteria and patients are typically treated with antibiotics either during the infection or preventively. Antiseptics have also been used for these purposes.

Since the extensive use of antibiotics is adding to the issue of antibiotic resistance, infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria have become a major problem globally.

Although antiseptics and antibiotics can kill the bacteria on wounds, they do not affect the subsequent inflammatory processes. Also, active substances present in antiseptic wound treatment are sometimes toxic and can be harmful and an environmental hazard.

This new hydrogel treatment isn’t harmful to the environment and it also destroys multi-resistant bacteria, say the authors. And not only is the new wound gel antibacterial but it also contains an immunosuppressive effect. The researchers have made it evident that the peptides present in the gel can inactivate the so-called liposaccharide present in the cell walls of bacteria which can trigger inflammatory reactions.

The gel also does lower the inflammatory responses within 24 hours of the treatment and also reduces the bacterial levels within a period of 3-4 days.

The research team is planning to collaborate with the company in2cure AB to get the gel approved for clinical studies involving burn injury patients.