Scientists from the Lodz University of Technology have developed an innovative hydrogel dressing for the treatment of diabetic wounds. The dressing delivers a tetrapeptide to the wound that can restore and create new blood vessels within it.
According to the researchers, the use of such a dressing could reduce the number of amputations.
Treatment of diabetic wounds is currently a greater problem in Poland and in the world than the treatment of other types of wounds. The costs of such therapies as well as the social effects of diabetic wounds are enormous – for this reason in Poland over 10 treatments are performed annually. limb amputation. Due to the specificity of these wounds, no biomaterials have been developed in the world that would significantly increase the probability of their healing.
The team of prof. Janusz Rosiak from the Interdepartmental Institute of Radiation Technology of the Lodz University of Technology has developed a technology for the production of hydrogel dressings enriched with a tetrapeptide, which causes angiogenesis, i.e. restores and creates new blood vessels within the wound. Cellular testing of such biomaterials gives positive results.
The dressing was created on the basis of a hydrogel dressing developed by scientists from Łódź, which – according to their technology – has been produced all over the world for over 20 years. It has the properties of an ideal dressing, and thanks to it, excellent results are achieved in the treatment of burn wounds, bedsores and wounds that are difficult to heal, e.g. trophic ulcers.
Hydrogel dressing applied directly to the wound, incl. provides oxygen access to the wound, constitutes a barrier against external infection, absorbs exudates, provides a moist environment, relieves pain, removes necrotic tissue from the wound when it is removed from the wound. At the same time, it makes it possible to dose the drug substance (in this case the tetrapeptide) at a constant, fixed rate, without the need for a doctor’s intervention.
It seems that the solution we have developed can be highly useful in the treatment of diabetic wounds. The production cost of the dressing is very low, and its production can be undertaken practically without large investments – told PAP, the creator of the dressing, Prof. Janusz Rosiak.
The dressing for the treatment of diabetic wounds currently requires the commencement of preclinical and clinical trials, which – as Prof. Rosiak – are not financed by the state. That is why we are willing to cooperate with companies interested in the production of such dressings – he added.
During treatment with a classic hydrogel dressing produced according to Rosiak’s method, it was found that it has a beneficial effect also in the treatment of the so-called diabetic foot, but the probability of healing this type of wound with the use of such dressing is about 50 percent. – as much as for other types of dressings known and used in the world.
This is related to the specificity of diabetic wounds, as they are distinguished by, among others, necrosis of wound tissues due to damage and destruction of blood vessels. It is also associated with the destruction of the nervous tissue and the gradual dying of the tissues surrounding the wound.
Attempts to treat this type of wounds, undertaken in Poland and around the world, come down to identifying the type of bacterial infections and using antibiotics or other active substances that can improve the cleanliness of the wound. While waiting for the wound to heal, factors that can cause angiogenesis, i.e. the restoration and formation of new blood vessels within the wound, can be delivered to it. For this purpose, the use of a number of substances, the so-called growth factors.
Prof. Rosiak explained that in their research, scientists from Łódź encountered reports in the literature on the use of a simple tetrapeptide to induce angiogenesis by delivering it to the treated area of the body. It is a compound naturally created in the human body, with a relatively short half-life of 5 minutes, hence its concentration in a normally functioning organism is very low. This tetrapeptide has been registered as a drug and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
However, its administration to the tissues surrounding the wound was done by injection, which made it impossible to control the area of action and caused the typical effects – rapidly reaching high concentrations and an equally rapid disappearance, which destroys its therapeutic effect. Our original, on a global scale, idea boils down to trying to combine a hydrogel dressing with this tetrapeptide – explained the scientist.
The technology of producing a hydrogel dressing developed by Łódź researchers consists in creating a mixture of the dressing ingredients in water (water accounts for over 90% of its composition), and then after placing it in the package and closing it, sterilizing it with an electron beam. As a result, a sterile hydrogel patch is formed which is used as a dressing.
The research problem was whether the active substance would not be destroyed during sterilization, because the tetrapeptide in the aqueous solution under the influence of the electron beam is completely destroyed already at electron doses that do not yet ensure the sterility of the product. However, we managed to solve this problem – added prof. Rosiak.
The solution was submitted for protection at the Patent Office. Thanks to the financial support of the National Center for Research and Development, scientists from Lodz conducted research on the kinetics of the release of the tetrapeptide into the wound, its durability in the dressing (it can be used even one year after its production) and interaction with cells.
At the molecular level, we confirmed the expression of genes responsible for angiogenesis, and at the cellular level, a significant acceleration of the proliferation of endothelial cells. We also showed the dependence of the obtained effects on the concentration of tetrapeptide and we determined the optimal dosage – the professor noted.
Scientists announce that if they do not find a source of funding for further research on the dressing, they do not rule out that they will make the know-how of their idea public. The problem of treating the so-called diabetic foot affects people all over the world and we do not necessarily have to make money on it – believes prof. Rosiak. (PAP)