For a person with diabetes, every wound is a potential health concern. Ignoring a cut or not treating it the right way can slow healing, lead to infection and, in the worst cases, result in amputation.

A new liquid bandage that conforms to the shape of a wound may offer a solution. Developed by a Northwestern University team to treat hard-to-heal diabetic sores and wounds, the bandage leverages the body's own healing mechanisms, rather than releasing drugs or biologics. Once applied and exposed to body temperature, the liquid rapidly solidifies into a gel, ensuring that it fills the space of the wound and stays put.

In pre-clinical tests, wounds healed 33 percent faster with the new bandage when compared to one of the most popular bandages on the market, the Systagenix Promogran Prisma, according to research published in June in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For team leader Guillermo Ameer, director of the Center for Advanced Regenerative Engineering at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering, the mission is personal. His father lived with diabetes for 40 years and, while mostly under control, they encountered many other diabetics with open sores and ulcers on their feet and legs.

According to the Center for Disease Control, 25 percent of diabetics develop foot ulcers, which can lead to frequent hospitalizations due to chronic non-healing wounds, and diabetes is the leading cause of non-traumatic limb amputations in the world. And the number of people with diabetes is growing rapidly, particularly in developing countries including India and Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

“Whatever we have now is not working,” says Ameer. “When wounds stay open beyond a month, it's very problematic. We've developed something that will give a patient a better chance to heal.”

The superpower behind the regenerative bandage is laminin, a protein found in most of the body's tissues including the skin. Laminin sends signals to cells, encouraging them to differentiate, migrate and adhere to one another. Ameer and his team identified a segment of laminin—12 amino acids in length-- called A5G81, that is critical for the wound-healing process.

“This particular sequence caught our eye because it activates cellular receptors to get cells to adhere, migrate and proliferate,” says Ameer. “Then we cut up the sequence to find the minimum size we needed for it to work.”

By using a small fragment of laminin rather than the entire protein, Ameer says it can be quickly synthesized in the laboratory, making it easier and cheaper to reproduce is mass quantity. Because the bandage does not release drugs, it faces fewer regulatory hurdles, he says. Although the team is interested in diabetes applications, the bandage can be used to heal other types of open wounds.

The next phase of testing is underway and Ameer says he is looking for investment partners to help scale manufacturing. He hopes to have FDA approval and deliver a product to market in two years.

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