All-in-one dressing enhances wound healing

12 July 2022

Globally, there are 8.1 million people who have wounds with or without infection. Rising wound incidence has imposed substantial burdens on healthcare expenditure. Despite being a common presentation in the clinical setting, providing optimal wound care remains a challenge.

Normal acute wounds in healthy individuals tend to resolve spontaneously without clinical intervention. However, improper wound care may lead to undesirable complications such as wound infections or abnormal wound healing, resulting in uneven scar tissue formation. Affordable treatments that improve wound healing outcomes are desirable and beneficial to patients and the healthcare system.

Traditional wound management often involves the separate application of medication and dressing. Healthcare personnel are involved in changing the dressings in a clinical setting. It causes inconvenience for patients, especially in urban areas where traffic congestion and long waiting time at the hospital are common.

"As a pharmacist, I used to work in a government hospital where I saw many patients with wounds, especially diabetic ulcers that are difficult to heal. That sparked my curiosity about wound healing mechanisms, and I wanted to know how we can make the wounds heal faster. After some research, I realised that there is no one dressing in the market that can increase the wound healing rate. Most of the dressings in the market are empty, requiring separate application of another medicine such as antibiotics, antiseptic cream, or gels for wounds before bandage. I thought it would be nice to have an all-in-one dressing for convenience's sake. As I have experience working with Tocotrienols for anticancer applications, I began to look into its other properties and found out that it can heal wounds faster. I decided to make an all-in-one dressing containing Tocotrienols for enhanced wound healing — Tocoheal," shared Dr Alice Chuah Lay Hong from the School of Pharmacy, Monash University Malaysia.

According to Dr Chuah, it took them three years to develop the prototype, from ingredient selection, formulation, optimisation and testing in the lab. "I collaborated with Dr Fu Ju Yen from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board and Dr Poh Phaik Eong from School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia, in the prototype development, and my research assistant, Loo Hooi Leong who has worked with me tirelessly in the project," she said.

The initial formulation stage was the most challenging, where the team faced multiple failures. The dressing wouldn't form or break too easily, or the tocotrienols leaked from the dressing after a while. The team had to keep adjusting and improving the formula to make it work, which took them about two years.

"Our formulated dressing membrane is designed as an all-in-one, easy-to-use dressing membrane loaded with wound healing agent Tocotrienols. There is no need for separate applications of dressings and medication. The easy-to-use and time-saving features allow patients to change their dressings easily at home. The self-management of dressings by patients will also enable hospitals to focus their expenses on other priority areas. This will impact the lives of 8.1 million people worldwide who have wounds. Governments in countries with subsidised healthcare can also save the cost by having fewer patients coming to the hospital for wound dressings," Dr Chuah stated.

The product has undergone lab testing and has been shown to heal the wound faster than untreated wounds or wounds with a gauze bandage. The team is now moving toward testing it on human volunteers.

Tocoheal is a novel all-in-one dressing loaded with a wound-healing agent, vitamin E Tocotrienols, and sustainable, biodegradable polymers formulation. The design enables the controlled release of tocotrienols into the wound. Tocoheal promotes blood clot formation, accelerates wound healing, and reduces scar formation. It has a high capacity to absorb exudates from wounds caused by burns, cuts and abrasions.

"We have successfully developed the prototype. The Monash University Malaysia Advanced Engineering Platform funded the first part of the research work. Meanwhile, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board gave us a large matching grant to conduct clinical trials of the dressings in post-surgical patients to evaluate their efficacy. The clinical trials will take about 1.5 years to complete," Dr Chuah further shared.

Tocoheal won a Gold medal (medical and health category) in Malaysia's 32nd International Invention, Innovation & Technology Exhibition (ITEX 2021).