14 DAY TRIAL // The medical dressing will release antibiotics from nanocapsules, activated by the presence of disease-causing pathogenic bacteria, targeting treatment before the infection aggravates. The advanced wound dressing will also change color when the antibiotics are released, thus alerting doctors that an infection is present. This is a huge step in treating burns patients, especially children, where infections can even lead to a toxic shock syndrome.
The team working on this project is international, being formed by scientists from the University of Bath, the burns team at the Southwest UK Paediatric Burns Center at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, along with researchers across Europe and Australia. This is a €4.5 million European Commission funded project, in which 11 partners across Europe and Australia collaborate. The project's coordinator is Dr Renate Förch, at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research (Germany), which will develop the bandage throughout the next four years.
Scientists working of this Bacteriosafe project include chemists, clinicians, cell biologists and engineers, who will not only develop the bandage, but also work with industry so that it could be available on the market, a few years after its completion.
Normally the skin has billions of bacterias that help it stay in good health. This bandage will only be activated by disease-causing bacteria. The toxins that it produces, will break open the capsules containing the antibiotics coloring the dressing. This way, the antibiotics will only be released if needed, thus reducing the risk of the evolution of antibiotic-resistant microbes, such as MRSA(Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).
Dr Amber Young, a pediatric burn specialist at the South West UK Paediatric Burn Center, based at Bristol’s Frenchay Hospital, will be the clinical consultant on the project. She said: “Conventional dressings have to be removed if the skin becomes infected, which slows healing and can be distressing for the child. This advanced dressing will speed up treatment because it is automatically triggered to release antibiotics only when the wound becomes infected, meaning that the dressing will not need to be removed, thereby increasing the chances of the wound healing without scarring. The color change acts as an early warning system that infection is present, meaning we can treat it much faster, reducing the trauma to the child and cutting the time they have to spend in hospital.”.
This nanocapsules bandage might also be used for other types of wounds, such as ulcer and even by the military on the battlefield. Researchers have already tested fabric containing nanocapsules with positive results to harmful bacteria. Over the next four years, the European team will work on the color change technology and will analyze the effective costs of an industrial production.