Light-activated wound sterilisation prototype development

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The management of wounds is a "silent epidemic" that is challenging health services worldwide. The NHS treated 3.8 million patients with a wound in 2017/18, translating to a burden of \>£8.3billion. A major factor that influences the healing of a wound is an infection by colonising microbes. Untreated infections prevent healing, but can also spread further, frequently necessitating surgery and even amputation. The increasing prevalence of contributing factors such as diabetes and obesity, and the alarming emergence of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics means that the number of chronically infected wounds is rising in all geographies and age groups. As we face the prospect of a world where antibiotics are no longer effective, we urgently need new modalities that can lower bioburden in wounds to aid healing and, thus, lower the enormous burden faced by healthcare services. LightOx, based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, have developed molecules that, when activated by light, cause the destruction of bacteria that colonise wounds through the generation of reactive oxygen species(ROS). We have also shown that these molecules are capable of disrupting and inhibiting the growth of biofilms -- a common complication of infected wounds that can inhibit healing. In this feasibility project, LightOx will develop our lead molecule, LightOx78, into three woundcare product prototypes -- a dressing, a hydrogel and a gel/aqueous solution -- and work with experts at Durham University to demonstrate the capability of these prototypes in the elimination of wound-colonising microbes and biofilms to aid effective wound healing. Concurrently, we will lay out an exploitation and regulatory roadmap to bring this novel technology to market as a woundcare product that augments the current standard of care. This technology could halve the average number of care appointments required to heal wounds and would have enormous benefit for health services and patients alike.