EXPERIMENTAL THERAPY SPEEDS UP WOUND HEALING PROCESS

Nanoparticles Aid Wounds to Heal Up to 50 Percent Faster

Researchers from Yeshiva University in New York, US and a company called MicroCures, Inc. has found a way to speed up the wound-healing process by using enzyme suppressors and a nanoparticle delivery system. In tests on mice, the ‘experimental nanoparticle therapy’ was reported to cut in half the time wounds took to heal compared to those that received no therapy. The testing phase will soon be expanded to pigs and in the longer term potentially human trials. This sort of technology would be useful for postoperative patients to help speed up the healing process, or if it was made available over the counter it could be used to treat cuts and burns at home.

The research team have discovered that an enzyme known as fidgetin-like 2 (FL2) that impedes the rate at which skin cells move towards wounds to heal them. By suppressing this enzyme the team can make the skin cells migrate faster to a wound. The researchers used molecules of silencing RNA (siRNA) to inhibit the growth of FL2. However, they had to develop nanoparticles as a delivery vehicle for the siRNAs to protect them from degradation. The results of the trials impressed the co-lead researcher David Sharp, he said “Not only did the cells move into the wounds faster, but they knew what to do when they got there.” “We saw normal, well-orchestrated regeneration of tissue, including hair follicles and the skin’s supportive collagen network.”