Julia Moióli | FAPESP Agency – Brazilian researchers have developed a low-cost hydrogel with anti-inflammatory action that could, in the future, help treat chronic skin wounds, such as those that often affect people with diabetes. Promising results from animal tests were disclosed in the magazine Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
According to the International Diabetes Federation, Brazil is the sixth country in the number of people with the disease, which has reached epidemic proportions and has become the fifth cause of death in the world. There are 17.7 million individuals suffering daily from metabolic changes caused by compromised insulin secretion and action, such as nephro and neuropathies and difficulties in wound healing. It is estimated that one in five patients with diabetes may develop chronic wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers.
In healthy people, skin injuries are immediately followed by a sequence of events that lead to healing: bleeding is controlled by platelet aggregation, providing a support structure for cell attachment and proliferation, formation of new blood vessels and collagen deposition. For those who suffer from diabetes, however, the process is much more complicated. Hyperglycemia increases the production of oxygen-derived substances (oxidants) and, unlike normal healing, diabetic wounds are mainly characterized by an exacerbated inflammatory response and impaired blood vessel formation.
Recently, biological hydrogels have been successfully used to accelerate the wound healing process due to the moist and sterile environment they provide. In work supported by FAPESP (projects It is ) and conducted during Monielle Sant'Ana Leal's doctorate, researchers from the Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) and Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp) developed a formula based on the annexin A1 protein, whose involvement in the regulation of inflammation and cell proliferation has already had been proven in previous studies by the same group. In the most recent article, the group describes that the treatment can modulate the microenvironment of the lesion, favoring tissue regeneration.
The effect of the hydrogel containing AnxA12-26 (the amino acids ranging from number two to 26 in the peptide chain that forms the protein) was evaluated in tests with mice that had a condition similar to induced type 1 diabetes. A decrease in inflammatory cells was observed in the animals three days after the induction of the lesions. After 14 days, the wounds were completely healed. By way of comparison, animals that did not undergo any treatment and that only received hydrogel application showed the common characteristics of the acute phase of inflammation, with more intense lesions on the third day.
Analysis showed that the treatment promoted an improvement in tissue regeneration through the proliferation of keratinocytes (cells with a fundamental role in restoring skin homeostasis), a reduction in macrophages (key cells in the healing process) and an increase in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF, which induces the growth of blood vessels).
Already a cytotoxicity assay in vitro (made to evaluate how skin cells react to the material) ensured the biocompatibility of the product, suggesting safety for topical application.
“Our hydrogel is highly absorbent, maintains the ideal moist environment for healing and shows efficiency in leading to the complete wound healing process, including reducing healing time”, he states. Sonia Maria Oliani , researcher at the Institute of Biosciences, Letters and Exact Sciences (Ibilce-Unesp) and coordinator of the study. “This is an effective option that can expand the therapeutic arsenal for treating diabetic wounds.”
Economy
Other advantages of the hydrogel developed by researchers from São Paulo are its ease of production and low cost – the latter is a fundamental factor to be considered, since annual medical expenses for diabetes in South and Central America exceed US$65.3 billion .
The product also has the potential to be used for other purposes. Researchers are currently testing its effect on the treatment of lesions in the oral mucosa.
The article Annexin A12-26 hydrogel improves healing properties in an experimental skin lesion after induction of type 1 diabetes can be read at: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332223010211?via%3Dihub