SCIENCE NEWS - Antibiotic laden wound dressings

Bacterial infections are a serious problem for patients with burns and other wounds. While many wound dressings today contain silver to thwart microbial activity, the metal can hurt human cells that are trying to regrow. The silver may also cull out weaker bacteria, leaving the survivors even more of a threat than before.
Scientists from the University of Bath, England have set out to build a better dressing by peppering it with tiny capsule-like vesicles that look to bacteria exactly like cells prime for infection. But when the bacteria do attack, they release an antibacterial agent that kills them and any of their kind that happen to be nearby.

The researchers tested their strategy by inoculating pieces of fabric with two harmful bacteria — a species of Staphylococcus and a member of the Pseudomonas group, as well as a harmless type of E. coli. In the study, the harmful bacteria were killed presumably because they released toxins and other chemicals which break the vesicle membrane releasing the antibiotic which kills the bacteria while the harmless group did not cause vesicle lysis and hence survived.
For now, the team is trying to make vesicles that last longer than the current span of minutes to hours.

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