A new dressing made from plant-based materials can deliver antibiotics directly to wounds during critical early stages of infection, according to researchers from the University of Bath. The study, published in Bioactive Materials, is the first to use this family of sustainable furan-based polymers, previously explored for sustainable plastics and packaging, for infection-fighting wound dressings.
Wound infections are a major challenge for healthcare systems worldwide and are estimated to cost the NHS alone billions every year. Bacteria can enter a wound and begin forming a protective, slimy layer known as a biofilm within hours, slowing healing and making infections much harder to treat.
The team from the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Chemistry has created a novel, two-sided dressing from sustainable polymers, a plastic-like material sourced from plants, not petrochemicals. One side of the dressing rapidly releases antibiotics into the wound, while the other acts as a barrier to maintain the protected healing environment.
The novel dressing intervenes in the early window before the biofilm grows, when treatment is most effective. It quickly releases the antibiotic and reaches effective concentrations within four hours, reducing biofilm formation by over 90%.
A two-sided material
Unlike many advanced wound dressings that rely on petroleum-based plastics or additional chemical treatments, this dressing is made simply from two
