Scientists Shine a Light on Bacterial Infection

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have developed polymers that fluoresce in the presence of bacteria, paving the way for the rapid detection and assessment of wound infection using ultra-violet light. When contained in a gel and applied to a wound, the level of fluorescence detected will alert clinicians to the severity of infection.

The polymers are irreversibly attached to fragments of antibiotics, which bind to either gram negative or gram positive bacteria - both of which cause very serious infections - informing clinicians as to whether to use antibiotics or not, and the most appropriate type of antibiotic treatment to prescribe. The team also found that they could use the same gels to remove the bacteria from infected wounds in tissue engineered human skin.

Professor Sheila MacNeil, an expert in tissue engineering and wound healing, explained: “The polymers incorporate a
fluorescent dye and are engineered to recognise and attach to bacteria, collapsing around them as they do so. This change in polymer shape generates a fluorescent signal that we’ve been able to detect using a hand-held UV lamp.”
“The availability of these gels would help clinicians and wound care nurses to make rapid, informed decisions about wound management, and help reduce the overuse of antibiotics,” said project lead Dr Steve Rimmer.

The research is the result of a 3-year project which started in 2006, part-funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) - an agency of the Ministry of Defence, interested in the medical application of the research in battlefield conditions, and a subsequent EPSRC funded PhD studentship. The team is interested in talking to potential partners to take this technology forward.