Wound healing and prevention of wound infection is one of the major challenges faced by healthcare systems. Bacteria entering the wound forms a protective slimy layer called biofilm and hinders wound healing, making it really hard to treat infection.
Most of the currently available advanced wound dressings mainly rely on petroleum-based plastics or additional chemical treatments.
A team from the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Chemistry,University of Bath has created a novel, double sided dressing from sustainable polymers, a plastic like plant based material (furan-based polymers). One side of the dressing rapidly delivers antibiotics (tetracycline), while the other side repels water to moderate moisture loss and promote healing.
The novel dressing reduces biofilm formation upto 90% by quickly releasing antibiotic which reaches an optimal concentration just in 4 hours, intervening even before bacteria gets a chance to grow the biofilm.
The two materials we used are very similar chemically; they differ by only two carbon atoms, but by spinning them into ultra-fine fibres, we can amplify these tiny molecular differences into dramatically different behaviours.
This allowed us to create a smart, two-sided dressing without any additional chemical modification, simultaneously guiding the antibiotic towards the wound while helping to prevent unnecessary loss of the drug away from the injury site and providing a barrier to protect the wound."
Dr. Xiang Ding, study’s lead author
The multidisciplinary team from Bath, in with collaboration with the University of Bristol and Newcastle University, tested the dressing against two common wound infecting bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and results showed a significant reduction in bacterial growth and biofilm formation after dressing application. The material is also found to be compatible with human skin cells, showing no signs of toxicity in laboratory testing.
This research shows the potential of using more sustainable wound care technologies without compromising on performance.
MBH/PS