New nanomaterial for therapy of pores and skin infections

Researchers on the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS (IOCB Prague) and the Technical University of Liberec in collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Microbiology of the CAS, the Department of Burns Medicine of the Third Faculty of Medicine at Charles University (Czech Republic), and P. J. Šafárik University in Košice (Slovakia) have developed a novel antibacterial materials combining nonwoven nanotextile and distinctive compounds with antibacterial properties. Called NANO-LPPO, the brand new materials can fulfill a variety of functions as a dressing for wounds, equivalent to burn accidents, by stopping an infection and thus facilitating therapy and therapeutic.

Because the variety of bacterial strains immune to frequent antibiotics is steadily growing, there’s a rising want for brand spanking new substances with antibacterial properties. A really promising class of drugs are the so-called lipophosphonoxins (LPPO) developed by the crew of Dominik Rejman of IOCB Prague in collaboration with Libor Krásný of the Institute of Microbiology of the CAS.

“Lipophosphonoxins hold considerable promise as a new generation of antibiotics. They don’t have to penetrate the bacteria but instead act on the surface, where they disrupt the bacterial cell membrane. That makes them very efficient at destroying bacteria,” says Rejman.

“A big advantage of LPPO is the limited ability of bacteria to develop resistance to them. In an experiment lasting several weeks, we failed to find a bacteria resistant to these substances, while resistance to well-known antibiotics developed relatively easily,” explains Krásný.

The potential of LPPO is particularly evident in conditions requiring instant focused intervention, equivalent to pores and skin infections. Here, nonetheless, the substances have to be mixed with an acceptable materials that ensures their topical efficacy with out the necessity to enter the circulatory system. This reduces the burden to the physique and facilitates use.

One such appropriate materials is a polymer nanofiber developed by the crew of David Lukáš of the Faculty of Science, Humanities and Education on the Technical University of Liberec. The researchers mixed it with LPPO to organize a brand new sort of dressing materials for bacteria-infected pores and skin wounds. The materials’s principal profit is that the antibacterial LPPO are launched from it regularly and in relation to the presence and extent of an infection.

“The research and development of the material NANO-LPPO is a continuation of the work carried out in a clinical trial on the NANOTARDIS medical device, which we recently successfully completed in collaboration with Regional Hospital Liberec, University Hospital Královské Vinohrady, and Bulovka University Hospital. With its morphological and physical-chemical properties, the device promotes the healing of clean acute wounds,” says Lukáš. “This collaboration with colleagues from IOCB Prague is really advancing the possibilities for use of functionalized nanofiber materials in the areas of chronic and infected wounds.”

“Enzymes decompose the nanomaterial into harmless molecules. The LPPO are an integral component of the material and are primarily released from it during this decomposition. Moreover, the process is greatly accelerated by the presence of bacteria, which produce lytic enzymes. This means that the more bacteria there are in the wound, the faster the material decomposes, which in turn releases more of the active substances into the affected site to promote healing and regeneration of soft tissues,” says Rejman in describing the motion of the fabric.

“Our experiments on mice confirmed the ability of NANO-LPPO to prevent infection in the wound and thus accelerate healing and regeneration. There was practically no spread of infection where we used the material. If clinical trials go well, this could be a breakthrough in the treatment of burns and other serious injuries where infection poses an acute threat and complication to treatment,” explains wound care specialist Peter Gál of the Department of Burns Medicine at Charles University’s Third Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Medicine at P. J. Šafárik University in Košice, and the East Slovak Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases.

In phrases of functions, NANO-LPPO is an attention-grabbing materials for producers of medicinal merchandise and medical gadgets. Its commercialization is being coordinated via a collaborative effort between IOCB TECH, a subsidiary of IOCB Prague, and Charles University Innovations Prague, a subsidiary of Charles University, each of which have been created for the aim of transferring outcomes of educational analysis to apply. The corporations are presently searching for an acceptable industrial companion.

The findings of the interdisciplinary examine have been revealed in Scientific Reports.