Nanotechnology Effective in Chronic Wound Healing?

The incidence of chronic wounds is increasing due to aging population and the augment of people afflicted with diabetes. Knowledge on the biological mechanisms underlying these diseases, there is a lot of medical technologies to conventionally treat the wound however wound healing differs from person to person.    

Several nanotechnologies have been developed demonstrating unique characteristics that address specific problems related to wound repair mechanisms. A review in Advance wound care journal, focused on the most recently developed nanotechnology-based therapeutic agents and evaluated the efficacy of each treatment in diabetic models.

The success of topically administered growth factors in chronic wounds is limited. Due to their short in vivo half-life, low absorption rate through the outermost skin later around the wound, as well as rapid elimination by exudation before reaching the wound bed, might limit the efficacy of growth factors topical application.

Conventional medications containing growth factors need to be applied in high doses and/or be repeatedly administrated over a long period, leading to important side effects and increasing the cost of the therapy. Presently, platelet-derived growth factor , fibroblast growth factor, and epidermal growth factor are widely studied for their application in growth factor-mediated wound repair.

A major advantage of these nanoplatforms is their adaptability and tunability. For instance, nanotherapeutics can be used in controlled and sustained released of the active ingredient over a period of days or weeks, while conventional delivery systems such as dressing films or gels can sustain the release of the therapeutic agent over 1 to 2 days.

The new chronic wound nanotherapeutics are multifunctional platforms that promote wound healing with minimal scar formation, avoid/treat bacteria contamination, and can even release the active biomolecules encapsulated at specific rates that match wound healing necessities.