New Treatment for Multidrug-resistant Bacterial Wound Infections

Dendritic hydrogels are excellent wound dressing materials because of their properties, which provide ideal contact on the skin and maintain the moist environment beneficial for optimal wound healing.

A new kind of antibiotic-free protection for wounds that kills drug-resistant bacteria and induces the body’s immune responses to fight infections is developed by Sweden scientists.

The new treatment is based on specially-developed hydrogels consisting of polymers known as dendritic macromolecules is reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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‘Dendritic hydrogel fights drug-resistant bacteria and induces the body’s natural immune defense.’

The hydrogels are formed spontaneously when sprayed on wounds as dressing material and are degradable and non-toxic.

Despite containing no antibiotics, hydrogels show excellent antibacterial qualities and were effective against a broad spectrum of bacteria. The material also reduces inflammation.

The antibacterial effect of the hydrogel depends on their structure where well-ordered branches terminate with a profusion of cationic, charged points that connect well with the bacterial cells.

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The hydrogels were tested against several clinically relevant infectious bacteria and showed effectiveness in killing those bacteria.

Cell infection tests also demonstrated that gel not only efficiently killed clinical drug-resistant bacteria from wounds but also induced the expression of naturally-existing antimicrobial peptides or endogenous antibiotics in human skin cells.

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Contrary to traditional antibiotics, where bacteria may develop resistance quickly, resistance towards antimicrobial peptides is rarely seen.

Targeting skin infections with the dendritic-based platform for more than a year shows that the synthesis for the hydrogels is less complicated and easily scalable.

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This hydrogel is considered to be an outstanding contribution to the fight against multidrug-resistant bacteria especially when running out of available antibiotics.

Source-Medindia