Project Info

Zwitterionic-nanoparticle dressing targeting inflammation and reactive oxygen species in Diabetic wounds

Melissa Krebs | mdkrebs@mines.edu

Impaired wound healing following injury in diabetics represents a major clinical problem, resulting in prolonged hospitalizations and significant healthcare expenditures. Two-thirds of all non-traumatic amputations are preceded by a diabetic wound, and every 30 seconds a lower limb is lost to a diabetic wound. The impaired healing of diabetic wounds has been shown to be multifactorial, however, a central pathogenic feature of diabetic wounds is chronic inflammation. Increasing evidence suggests that chronic inflammation contributes to the pathogenesis of diabetic wounds through persistent activation of pro-inflammatory pathways and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress. In order to synergistically target ROS and chronic inflammation, our collaborators have designed and synthesized novel cerium oxide nanoparticles (CNPs) that possess ROS scavenging properties and have conjugated them with miRNA. The objective of this work is to develop a clinically applicable topical delivery system for the novel CNP-miRNA conjugate. We hypothesize that a zwitterionic gel can be developed and tuned to provide topical therapeutic delivery of our CNP-miRNA conjugate to promote resolution of the chronic inflammatory response and decrease oxidative stress and correct the diabetic wound healing impairment. We are looking for a student interested in helping fabricate and characterize the materials, and measure release profiles.

More Information

https://pubs.rsc.org/is/content/articlelanding/2016/ra/c6ra03009b#!divAbstract

https://krebslab.com/research/

Grand Engineering Challenge: Engineer better medicines