A medical dressing that changes colour when it detects infection will improve treatments for burns patients and reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics, say scientists at the UK's University of Bath.
Dr Toby Jenkins, Reader in Biophysical Chemistry at Bath leading the project, said the dressing works by releasing fluorescent dye from nanocapsules triggered by the toxins secreted by disease-causing bacteria within the wound.
'The nanocapsules mimic skin cells in that they only break open when toxic bacteria are present; they aren’t affected by the harmless bacteria that normally live on healthy skin,' he said.
'Using this dressing will allow clinicians to quickly identify infections without removing it, meaning that patients can be diagnosed and treated faster. It could really help to save lives.'
Children with burn wounds are particularly susceptible to bacterial infections because of their immature immune systems.
These infections can slow the healing of wounds, leading to longer hospital stays and increase permanent scarring. In severe cases, burn infection can lead to sepsis, which can kill.
Using this dressing will allow clinicians to quickly identify infections without removing it
Doctors find it very difficult to diagnose infections quickly and easily without removing the wound dressing, which can be painful and create more scarring. Because of this, doctors often prescribe antibiotics as a precaution before the infection is confirmed.
However, treatment with antibiotics when there is no infection can lead to bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics and antibiotic resistance has been identified by world leaders as one of today's biggest health threats.
Dr Jenkins and his team have been awarded almost £1m by the UK's Medical Research Council to test the responsiveness of the prototype dressing to samples taken from the wounds of burns victims.
Dr Jenkins said the funding will be used to design, manufacture and package a final prototype dressing, safe and ready for trial in humans.
Dr Amber Young is the Clinical Lead for the Healing Foundation Children’s Burns Research Centre at Bristol Children’s Hospital. She will take wound swabs and blister fluid from young burns patients and link them to patients’ symptoms for Dr Jenkins to test how well the new dressing detects infection.
Dr Brian Jones, Reader in Molecular and Medical Microbiology from the University of Brighton, will be coordinating work to understand how the dressing responds to problematic bacteria in wounds, and also to collect samples from adult patients at Queen Victoria Hospital in West Sussex.
Dr Jones said: 'This new dressing technology will not only help clinicians provide the best possible treatment for patients with burns, but could also tell us a lot about how wound infections begin and how they affect the normal healing process. This could in turn lead to even further advances in treating these infections.'
Once the dressing has been proven to effectively detect infection in swab samples from patients, the team plans to work with healthcare company Hartmann to develop the dressing for use in hospitals in around four years.
