Nanobased dressings for wound healing

Saeedeh Ahmadi,1 Malihe keramati,2 Iman akbarzadeh,3 Haleh bakhshandeh abkenar,4,*

1. Department of Biophysics, Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch
2. Pilot of Nano-Biotechnology Department, Pasteur Institute
3. Department of chemical engineering, Sharif University
4. Pilot of Nano-Biotechnology Department, Pasteur Institute

Abstract

Introduction

Skin encounters many wounds daily. these wounds include simple scratches, sunburns, cuts, and also deep wounds caused by accidents or surgical injuries. wound healing is a complicated and chronic process that usually takes within 8-12 weeks depending on the size, depth and the extent of damage in the epidermis and dermis layer of the skin. researchers around the globe have started providing evidence on the effective use of such nanoparticles in various fields of medicine extending from genetics to various other branches of medicine. this review attempts to consider the currently available applications of nanotechnology in wound dressing

Methods

In this simple overview to collect information, articles that contain one of the terms: woundhealing, nanotherapy, dressing from 2010 to 2018 at science direct, scopus, pubmed and google scholar were searched and reviewed. so, through an extensive search of relevant literature, this review reports the most significant evidence regarding nanobased dressings for wound healing.

Results

Wound healing by appropriate materials to cover the wound in order to prevent any infections has been used from many years ago. plant fibers, linen, honey pastes, and animal fats have been used as wound dressing from the years ago. suitable dressing material must be selected dependent on the wound type. the features of an ideal dressing include its ability to a) maintain high humidity at the wound environment b) increase epidermal migration c) removed without causing trauma to the wound d) allow gaseous exchange e) be comfortable and conformable f) appropriate tissue temperature g) prevent bacteria infiltration h) non-toxic and non-allergic, and also having long shelf life and cost effectively. nowadays nano-based wound dressings such as metallic and metallic oxide nanomaterial, non-metallic nanomaterial, antibiotics and antioxidant-containing nanoparticles, growth factor incorporated nanomaterial, stem cell incorporated nanoscaffolds are widely used. development of nanotechnology, especially multifunctional systems in wound healing is reported by several papers recently, which indicates the high expectations toward nanotherapeutic interventions in the wound-healing field. however, the hurdle lies in gathering enough information about the physicochemical features of the nanoscale systems and their excepted behavior and toxicity in the human body. furthermore, the high purity of the scaffolds and nanoparticles administered by the fda(food and drug administration) for human use is also a challenge, as often the bulk preparation and purification of the polymers and nanoparticles prepared are difficult. thus, there is an incessant need for better synthetic tools and analytical methods that will allow for the translation of nanotechnology-based approaches to the clinic. further studies are indispensable to provide insights into how research findings of nanotechnology-based therapies can be applied in the clinical usages. it is expected that new and exciting nanotechnology platforms will arise; thus, additional research on these technologies is needed to develop international standards on biocompatibility and toxicology of nanotherapies.

Conclusion

Overall, the current capabilities in advanced constructing and improvement of different nanosystems, together with the knowledge of chronic wounds, molecular pathology, and phenotype-genotype characteristics, are projected to promote the design of the next generation of wound-healing nanotechnology. comprehensive efforts are also critical to achieve chronic wound therapies with site-specificity and targeting efficiency in order to avoid undesirable events and interferences that might prevent the nanosystems from their biological functions in the human body.

Keywords

Wound healing, nanomaterial, dressing