Revolutionary medical dressing uses nanotechnology to fight infection.

Researchers are using nanotechnology           to develop a medical dressing which will detect and treat infection in wounds. Scientists in the UK are working together with teams across Europe and Australia to create an advanced wound dressing. The dressing will work by releasing antibiotics from nanocapsules triggered by the presence of disease-causing pathogenic bacteria, which will target treatment before the infection takes hold. The dressing will also change colour when the antibiotic is released, alerting healthcare professionals that there is infection in the wound.

This is an important step in treating burns patients, particularly children, where infections can lead to toxic shock syndrome, a potentially fatal condition. The Bacteriosafe project includes chemists, cell biologists, clinicians and engineers. They will not only develop the dressing, but will also work with industry on a pre-pilot scale manufacturing process, so they could be available on the market within a few years after completion of the project. The dressing is only triggered by disease-causing bacteria, which produce toxins that break open capsules containing the antibiotics and dye. This means that antibiotics are only released when needed, which reduces the risk of the evolution of new antibiotic-resistant super-bugs such as MRSA.

This advanced dressing will speed up treatment because it is automatically triggered to release antibiotics only when the wound becomes infected, meaning that the dressing will not need to be removed, thereby increasing the chances of the wound healing without scarring. The dressing could also be used for other types of wound, such as ulcers or by the military on the battlefield.

The researchers have already tested fabric coated with the nanocapsules, which are just one millionth of a millimetre in size. They have been shown to react specifically to harmful bacteria. Over the next four years the European team will be working on integrating the colour change technology into a suitable dressing and looking at cost effective routes for industrial production