Scientists Report New Hydrogel to Protect Wounds from Germs
The main aim in treating wounds is to prevent infection. With an open wound, microbes gain direct access inside the body. This significantly complicates wound healing and can cause more serious consequences, so it is important to develop antibacterial coatings for wounds. One of the modern approaches to this is hydrogel films. Unlike traditional remedies, hydrogels mimic healthy tissue and cover the wound, protecting it from germs. They also help to cool the wound and not over-dry it. In addition, hydrogels can contain a medicine that will provide the wound with additional protection. A RUDN University and SBU chemist with colleagues from Iran created such a coating and proved its effectiveness.
“Since the hydrogels’ hydrated molecular and porous structure, they can mimic the biological and physicochemical characteristics of the tissue environment hydrogel-based wound dressings have remarkable features such as providing a cooling sensation, sustaining a wet circumstance at the interfacing wound, maintaining a barrier to microorganisms, permitting gaseous exchange, and permitting wound exudate absorption,” said Ahmad Shaabani, a leading researcher at the Joint Institute for Chemical Research of RUDN and SBU.
Chemists have created a coating with pores that can contain the medicine. The film itself covers the wound, and the medicine gradually comes out of the pores, preventing microbes from spreading. The hydrogel consists of carboxymethylcellulose (a derivative of ordinary cellulose) and an organometallic framework UiO-66, with the porous structure where they put a popular antibiotic tetracycline. Scientists investigated how different concentrations of UiO-66 affect the properties of the hydrogel and its ability to release an antibiotic. Having selected the optimal parameters, chemists determined how the hydrogel with an antibiotic cope with Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.
The hydrogel showed high efficiency against both bacteria and was harmless to human connective tissue cells. In a Petri dish with a medium of artificial sweat and wound exudate, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus died within a radius of 6.5-8.5 mm from the drug. Initially, there was a high rate of antibiotic release (up to 50% of the drug came out of the hydrogel in the first five hours), then the rate stabilized, and the hydrogel slowly released the remaining drug over the next three days.
“Designing an antibacterial agent with a suitable water vapour permeability, good mechanical properties, and controlled antibiotic release is a promising method for stopping bacterial infection in wound tissue. The designed hydrogel films can attract great attention to construct a safe and straightforward system through a green method and control the microbial growth in wound tissue,” said Ahmad Shaabani, a leading researcher at the Joint Institute for Chemical Research of RUDN and SBU.
The study is published in International Journal of Biological Macromolecules.
RUDN summarized the results of the scientific competition "Project Start: work of the science club ". Students of the Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Natural Sciences have created a project for a managed queuing system using a neural network to redistribute resources between 5G segments. How to increase flexibility, make the network fast and inexpensive and reach more users — tell Gebrial Ibram Esam Zekri ("Fundamental Computer Science and Information Technology", Master's degree, II course) and Ksenia Leontieva ("Applied Mathematics and Computer Science", Master's degree, I course).
The National Demographic Report, 2023 Demographic Well-Being of Russian Regions (hereinafter - the National Demographic Report) was prepared by the scientific team of the Institute of Demographic Studies of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Vologda Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, the Center for Family and Demography of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, as well as with the participation of leading scientists from the Republic of Bashkortostan, Stavropol Krai, Volgograd, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Sverdlovsk Oblasts and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra.
RUDN summarized the results of the scientific competition "Project Start: work of the science club ". Students of the Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Natural Sciences have created a project for a managed queuing system using a neural network to redistribute resources between 5G segments. How to increase flexibility, make the network fast and inexpensive and reach more users — tell Gebrial Ibram Esam Zekri ("Fundamental Computer Science and Information Technology", Master's degree, II course) and Ksenia Leontieva ("Applied Mathematics and Computer Science", Master's degree, I course).
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The National Demographic Report, 2023 Demographic Well-Being of Russian Regions (hereinafter - the National Demographic Report) was prepared by the scientific team of the Institute of Demographic Studies of the Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Vologda Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, the Center for Family and Demography of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, as well as with the participation of leading scientists from the Republic of Bashkortostan, Stavropol Krai, Volgograd, Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Sverdlovsk Oblasts and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra.