New technology for accelerated wound healing discovered

Researchers at Uppsala University and SLU have found a new way of accelerating wound healing. The technology and the mode of action method published in the highly ranked journal PNAS involves using lactic acid bacteria as vectors to produce and deliver a human chemokine on site in the wounds. The research group is the first in the world to have developed the concept for topical use and the technology could turn out to be disruptive to the field of biologic drugs.

Treatment of large and chronic wounds are a high cost burden to the health care system since effective tools to accelerate healing are lacking. Wound care is today limited to mechanical debridement, use of different dressings and significant amounts of antibiotics preventing or treating wound infections. With the aging population, occurrence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and the alarming global spread of antibiotic resistance, a treatment that kick-starts and accelerates wound healing will have a significant impact. There have been many attempts to solve the problem of chronic wounds that have failed. Drug candidates currently in late stage clinical trials comprise of growth factors, which are traditional protein-based biological drugs associated with high costs, and some trials have been prematurely terminated.

"We have developed a drug candidate, a next-generation biologic medical product, and are now publishing the fantastic results from the preclinical part where wound healing was strongly accelerated in mice," says Mia Phillipson, Professor at the Department of Medical Cell Biology, Division of Integrative Physiology, Uppsala University.

The acceleration of the healing process occurs due to changes in the microenvironment in the wound, which change the behaviour of specific immune cells. With the newly developed technology, the researchers can increase the level of a chemokine, CXCL12, for a sufficient time period through continuous delivery directly to the wound surface. In addition, bioavailability of CXCL12 is synergistically increased within the wound as the bacterial produced lactic acid causes a slight pH drop that inhibits degradation.

"The chemokine, CXCL12, is endogenously upregulated in injured tissue and by increasing the levels further, more immune cells are recruited and are more specialised to heal the wound, which accelerates the whole process," says Professor Phillipson.

The potent effect on acceleration of wound healing is demonstrated in healthy mice but also in two models of diabetes, one model of peripheral ischemia as well as in a model using human skin biopsies.

There were clear differences in the composition of immune cells in the wounds and the immune cells present produced higher levels of TGFß at earlier time points. The treatment was local without systemic exposure.

The Revolution: Indian Scientists Claim Discovery of Safer, Cheape...

The Revolution: Indian Scientists Claim Discovery of Safer, Cheape...: Indian scientists claim discovery of a safer, cheaper diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The process involves turning nanoparticles of c...

Indian Scientists Claim Discovery of Safer, Cheaper Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer

Indian scientists claim discovery of a safer, cheaper diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The process involves turning nanoparticles of calcium phosphate, a biomineral naturally found in human bones, into fully biodegradable radio frequency agents and making them imageable by MRI and CT scans.

Kochi (ISJ) – Indian scientists have claimed discovery of a safer, cheaper diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The process involves turning nanoparticles of calcium phosphate, a biomineral naturally found in human bones, into fully biodegradable radio frequency agents and making them imageable by MRI and CT scans. "The development of calcium phosphate nanoparticles with imageable properties for drug delivery applications is a major innovation in the quest to develop biodegradable contrast agents for imaging (diagnostic) purposes," said Dr. Shanti Nair, Director of Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine at the Kochi-based Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences. 

"Calcium phosphate is naturally found in human bones and is non-toxic and fully biodegradable.

Now that its nanoparticles have been made imageable by MRI and CT scans, their accumulation in tumours can be verified and the MR contrast used for image-guided surgical treatment of cancer." Currently, the most common treatment for cancer involves radiation and use of gamma rays to kill cancer cells. However, this inflicts collateral damage - healthy cells also get destroyed along with cancer cells. Radiation treatment with Cyber-Knife is much more precise, but very expensive. In this situation, the most easily accessible and cheapest cancer treatment available today uses radio frequency (RF) microwaves. But for this method to work, the RF agent should be non-toxic to human body and preferentially accumulated in the tumour. This is where the development of calcium phosphate nanoparticles as a biodegradable RF agent becomes significant.

 "The main advantage of calcium phosphate is that our body does not treat it as foreign material, leading to minimum toxicity and immune rejection compared to other engineered nanoparticles which are non-biodegradable. We have made this biomineral imageable using MRI and CT," explained Dr Manzoor Kyakutty, Professor at the Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine and the project's principal investigator. "It can be guided precisely to cancer tumours, which will enable their treatment under image guidance, using radio waves to heat up and destroy the cancerous cells. We are now conducting large animal studies, and clinical trials will follow."

 The team of co-inventors has launched a new company which has already acquired the rights from Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences to bring the product to clinics. The discovery of RF hyper-thermic property (heat generation under radio waves) of calcium phosphate was by chance. A team of researchers at the Centre while doing experiments to optimize MRI imaging and RF properties of some calcium-containing materials accidentally found that the calcium compound was getting heated up when exposed to radio waves. This led to the optimization of calcium phosphate nanoparticles for RF applications. The scientists enhanced their hyper-thermic properties by doping them with iron nanoparticles having magnetic properties, which also helped in magnetic resonance imaging.

Source: Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences

New Digital and Technology Centre for Real Estate set up in Gurugram

A real estate consulting firm has launched its first dedicated real estate technology Centre in Gurugram, India. The facility, launched by CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd, will serve as the only dedicated development Centre outside of the United States.

The Gurugram site will initially host approximately 120 software engineers dedicated to work on CBRE’s expanding suite of Asia Pacific digital products. Moving into the new D&T Centre in Gurugram, CBRE plans to further invest in its India software development team, expanding both headcount and capabilities in the coming 12 months to pioneer the next generation real estate technology solutions and platforms.

The Digital & Technology Centre was inaugurated by  Vinay Pratap Singh, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Gurugram along with Chandra Dhandapani, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, CBRE and Anshuman Magazine, Chairman, India & South East Asia, CBRE.

“The Digital & Technology Centre in Gurugram is a game changer for real estate and technology development in India. This centre will not only pioneer a new generation of best-in-class technology solutions to address the growing digitization needs of the realty sector but serve as a major drawcard for India’s world class digital talent,” said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman, India & South East Asia, CBRE.

“Launch of CBRE’s Digital & Technology Centre facility is a landmark event for the real estate and technology sectors in India, supporting the Government of India’s Digital India vision. Gurugram has emerged as a preferred destination for the IT industry in North India, with more than 400 IT and ITeS companies present in the city. We are extremely proud that CBRE has chosen Gurugram as the location for its first ever centre for Asia Pacific. This further strengthens Gurugram’s position as the next Central Business District in the NCR region,” said Vinay Pratap Singh, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Gurugram.

Chandra Dhandapani, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, CBRE, said “At CBRE, we believe that technology is a key enabler in enhancing the services and experiences we provide for our clients. This Digital & Technology Centre will serve as a catalyst for the development of next generation technologies that help our clients achieve their aspirations through real estate. This centre will give us access to world class digital talent that India is well known for.”