Dr Terry Bilverstone

Diabetic wound healing is a serious public health problem encountering diabetic patients worldwide. It can lead to terrible consequences, such as gangrene or amputation, if not treated correctly and quickly. The delay of diabetic wound healing is due to contamination of diabetic wounds with resistant bacterial strains that tend to keep wound site at alkaline pH (pH≥8). Therefore, with the absence of adequate antimicrobial agent, there is a high demand to find alternative, effective and safe antimicrobial agents. Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) was reported to have a broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity where its principle antimicrobial mechanism involves the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are able to attach the micro-organism at multiple sites and thus reduce the potential of micro-organism developing resistance. Moreover, it has a good safety profile being approved by FDA for treatment of hemolytic anemia. In the current project, a cutting-edge science, will use electrospinning techniques to fabricate a smart wound dressing where IONPs will be incorporated into pH-responsive polymeric nanofibers (Eudragit L100) followed by investigating its antimicrobial activity (in-vitro) against the common causative bacteria associated with wound infections. This will be followed by assessing the cytotoxicity of produced smart wound dressing both in vitro (Human dermal fibroblast cells) and in vivo (acute and sub-chronic toxicity). Then after, assessing the wound healing capacity of produced smart wound dressing on infected and non-infected wound of diabetic animal model in comparison to a selected wound dressing available in market. The obtained results will be correlated with future pilot clinical study as a further test of their suitability to progress to clinical translation targeting chronic wound treatment in diabetic patients. Such developed smart wound dressing would be of interest to Egypt & other developing countries where human resources & healthcare budgets are limited. Produced locally, these smart wound dressing will be a revenue source & enhance the socio-economic development of Egypt and other ODA-supported countries. The is a collaborative project with Dr Yasmin Abozeid (Associate Professor, School of Pharmacy, Helwan University, Cairo. Egypt).