This gel can fight drug-resistant bacteria and induce the body's natural immune defense

According to a report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers from the Royal Institute of Technology, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital said that this new treatment is based on specially developed hydrogels.

KTH professor Michael Marko said that the hydrogel is formed spontaneously when sprayed on the wound, and it is 100% degradable and non-toxic

The antibacterial effect of hydrogels is not yet fully understood, but the key lies in the structure of these macromolecules

"Bacterial cells interact, and so are dendritic macromolecules," he said

Professor Annelie Brauner of Karolinska Institute said that although it does not contain antibiotics, the hydrogel shows excellent antibacterial properties and is effective against a wide range of clinical bacteria, killing both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, including from wounds.

The hydrogel was tested against several clinically relevant infectious bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus (S.

Cell infection tests show that this gel not only effectively kills clinically resistant bacteria in wounds, but also induces the expression of antimicrobial peptides (or endogenous antibiotics) naturally present in human skin cells

"These endogenous antibiotics help fight bacteria and clear infections," Brauner said

Compared with currently available wound dressing hydrogels on the market, hydrogels are even more successful in killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

The dendrimers that make up the hydrogel are based on polyethylene glycol (PEG) and propionic acid (bis mpa)

Malkoch said: "Their well-designed branch structure and scalability make them an ideal scaffold for biomedical applications

Malkoch's laboratory has been using a dendritic-based platform to conduct research on skin infections for more than a year, and the newly published report claims that the synthesis of hydrogels is not so complicated and easy to expand

Brauner said: "This gel has made an outstanding contribution to fighting multi-drug resistant bacteria, especially in this era when we are running out of available antibiotics

Journal Reference :

1. Yanmiao Fan, Soumitra Mohanty, Yuning Zhang, Mads Lü chow, Liguo Qin, Lisa Fortuin, Annelie Brauner, Michael Malkoch.