Development of novel wound dressings for infection control: Exploration of infection-responsive release and prophylactic bacteriophage therapy

Diana R. AlvesDr. Diana R. Alves from the Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, West Sussex, as well as the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom, will give a presentation about Development of novel wound dressings for infection control: Exploration of infection-responsive release and prophylactic bacteriophage therapy at the Phage Therapy World Congress 2016.

According to Dr. Alves and her team, burn wounds are typically colonised by a variety of potential pathogens and infection is a common complication in the treatment of these injuries. Infection is associated with poor clinical outcomes including increased time to heal, worse scarring, and can in some cases lead to life threatening systemic infection. In addition, the most commonly encountered pathogens colonising wounds include those that are often resistant to multiple antibiotics, such as Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The use of bacteriophage in this context holds much promise, and there is considerable scope for phage therapy to provide a viable approach to combat or prevent wound infections, including those caused by antibiotic resistant species. To address this, Dr. Alves and her team have begun to develop phage therapies alongside infection-responsive materials suitable for incorporation in wound dressings, to permit triggered release of phage as infection begins, and have begun to evaluate phage cocktails and delivery systems using ex-vivo models of burn wound infection.

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