Alligator-Derived Hyaluronic Acid: Bacteriostatic and Fungastatic Properties Against Pathogens Editorial Summary
Dr Mitchell Sanders
Dr Swathi Balaji
Chief Scientific Officer, Alira Health
Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital
Boston MA, United States
Houston TX, United States
Chronic wounds, also known as hard-to-heal wounds, have a significant economic and health burden globally. Hyaluronic acid has a number of advantageous properties in wound healing. These include properties of protection of stem cells, growth factors, and cytokines. Alligator tissues have been considered to have bacteriostatic and fungistatic properties. Chronic skin wounds are often infected with pathogenic microorganisms that may contribute to delayed wound healing. Antimicrobial-based advanced wound care products are widely used to treat microbially contaminated wounds. However, toxicology and wound healing studies have shown antimicrobials can delay wound healing and are cytotoxic at high levels. Furthermore, many of these products are not safe for the environment, as such there is a trend in the United States and Europe to utilize natural ingredients that are ecofriendly, reduce the bioburden, and accelerate wound healing. Since it has previously been suggested that American alligator-derived tissues exhibit bacteriostatic and fungistatic properties, we compared the bacteriostatic and fungistatic properties, biofilm eradication capability and cytotoxicity of American alligator-derived hyaluronic acid (aHA) with that of commercially available streptococcal-derived HA (sHA).
Introduction
W
Dr Da Wei
Ms Lindsay Poland
Ms Mia Hanna
Scientist II/ Project Manager, Alira Health
Scientist III/ Lab Operations Manager, Alira Health
Project Manager/ Research Associate III, Alira Health
Boston MA, United States
Boston MA, United States
Boston MA, United States
Ms Nikole Siegmund
Mr Ted Bundrick
Dr Thomas Serena
Vice President, Preclinical Development, Alira Health
Vice President of Operations, Lacerta Life Sciences
Founder and CEO SerenaGroup Inc.
Boston MA, United States
Lafayette LA, United States
Cambridge MA, United States
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Wound Masterclass - Vol 1 - December 2022
orldwide, chronic wounds are a substantial burden to the quality of life (QoL) of the patients as well as a significant economic burden to our health care system with an estimated annual cost of $50B in the US alone.1,2 Nonhealing wounds are often stalled in the inflammatory phase (see Figure 1) and considered hard-to-heal or chronic wounds when healing is delayed in the phase of wound healing for greater that 4 weeks and up to more than three months.3 Some wounds remain chronic for years. Thus, the longer time it takes these wounds to heal provides a severe risk for a polymicrobial infection which can stall the wound even further in the inflammatory phase and is concomitant with a higher incidence of lower extremity amputation (LEA) and mortality.4 Hyaluronic acid matrices have been utilized in wound care to replenish and stabilize the extracellular matrix in a chronic wound bed.5,6 Hyaluronic acid has also been shown to protect stem cells, growth factors, and cytokines required for cell proliferation and angiogenesis.7,8,9 Additional evidence suggests that hyaluronic acid may also inhibit bacterial growth and could possibly bind host and bacterial proteases that are hyperactivated in the stalled inflammatory phase of a diabetic wound.10,11 Since Alligator tissues have been implicated as having bacteriostatic and fungistatic properties, our hypothesis was that this source of aHA may play a critical role in reducing the bioburden to promote chronic wound healing.12,13
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