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SINGAPORE, Jan 17 — Singapore scientists may have found a new way to help patients with diabetes avoid foot amputations by improving the healing of chronic wounds.
The team discovered that treating skin cells with the antioxidant enzyme catalase can disarm antibiotic-resistant bacteria and allow wounds to repair more quickly, The Straits Times reported today.
“Laboratory experiments show that oxidative stress triggers a cellular defence mechanism… which effectively paralyses the cells, preventing them from moving to close the wound,” Nanyang Technological University (NTU) research fellow Aaron Tan was quoted as saying.
The study, co-led by NTU Associate Professor Guillaume Thibault and Professor Kimberly Kline from the University of Geneva, focused on the bacterium Enterococcus faecalis, which is said to often prevent diabetic foot ulcers from healing.
By neutralising hydrogen peroxide produced by the bacteria with catalase, the researchers found that skin cells were able to recover, migrate, and close wounds normally.
“The findings – that the bacteria’s metabolism itself is the weapon – were a surprise as it was previously unknown to scientists,” Thibault was quoted as saying.
The scientists suggest that wound dressings could be infused with catalase, offering a potential treatment for chronic wounds that avoids the overuse of antibiotics.
“Because antioxidants like catalase are already widely used and well understood, we believe this strategy could shorten the path from laboratory research to clinical application,” Tan was quoted as saying.
The findings have been published in Science Advances, a peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The NTU team now plans to move towards human clinical trials after using ongoing animal studies to determine the most effective way to deliver the antioxidant treatment.
