RMIT University
Melbourne, Australia

In research led by RMIT University’s Dr. Asma Khalid, smart wound dressings made of silk and nanodiamonds effectively sensed wound temperature — an early sign of infection — promoted healing, and reduced infection from certain bacteria.

Senior researcher Prof. Brant Gibson says it offered a solution to the global challenge of wound care and healing.

“Traditional wound management presents a significant challenge for clinicians, who have to regularly check for infection by looking for signs of redness, heat and swelling,” he says. “However, once these visual signs appear, inflammation and infection are far advanced, making therapies or interventions substantially more challenging. This new technology would aid clinicians to detect infections earlier and noninvasively without the painful procedure of dressing removal.”

Heat-Sensing Capability

Co-researcher and wound specialist at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), Dr. Christina Bursill, says the smart wound dressing was a potential game changer.

“As a non-invasive measurement of wound temperature, this new technology provides a highly accurate way to monitor wound quality, compared to the very subjective method of visual assessment,” she says.

To incorporate the heat sensing capability, the team turned to diamonds, which are known to detect biological temperature to a highly precise level.

“By embedding nanodiamonds into silk fibers using an electrospinning process, we’ve been able to develop a naturally derived wound dressing that can sense infections,” Vice-Chancellor Fellow at RMIT Dr. Asma Khalid, explains.

“The heat-sensing capability opens the possibility of contactless wound monitoring by clinicians who would be able to obtain information on the wound’s status from the nanodiamond temperature readout.”

Bacterial Resistance

The study, published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, also tested the hybrid technology for resistance to gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, the major players in skin wound infections. 1

“These leading causes of wound or surgical infections in healthcare settings are increasingly resistant to most available antibiotics,” Khalid notes. “We were very excited to find the nanodiamond silk membranes showed an extremely high antibacterial resistance to gram negative bacteria,” she says.

The study shows that the smart membranes can detect early signs of infection and protect wounds from certain bacteria and infection, while also maintaining the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the area.

“Realizing this exciting new technology would provide a beneficial and cost-effective solution to the increasing challenge of wound management and healing,” Khalid says.

The research consortium included scientists from RMIT University, the University of Adelaide, the University of Melbourne, Flinders University, SAHMRI, and the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP).

The work was supported by RMIT University’s Vice Chancellor Fellowship and the ARC through the CNBP and a Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) grant.

References

  1. Asma Khalid et al., “Electrospun nanodiamond-silk fibroin membranes: a multifunctional platform for biosensing and wound healing applications,” ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c15612).

This article was written by Diana Robertson, RMIT. For more information, visit here .