Developing a biofilm model of Diabetic Foot Ulcer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Do inter-kingdom interactions in complex multi-species affect susceptibility to antimicrobial treatment
IRAS ID
293291
Contact name
Craig L.C. Williams
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 1 months, 30 days
Research summary
Chronic wounds cause significant mortality and morbidity to patients, leading to permanent disability and decreased quality of life, and are expensive to manage. Wound infections for example are responsible for an estimated 37,000 deaths p.a. within the EU and cost €7 billion p.a.
The emergence of new bacterial strains resistant to all current antibiotics is a potential time-bomb.
In response, bodies such as the World Health Organization have called for a reduction in antibiotic use and innovation to improve infection control and treatment of these infections.
The ability of bacteria and fungi to form biofilms, which are dense, multilayers of bacterial and fungal cells protected by an extracellular polymeric substance, is fundamental to their success in infecting wounds and resisting treatment. Arguably, the only appropriate ecological model to study bacterial growth in a chronic infection is a biofilm model. However at present the models available are composed of only a few bacteria which are commonly present in clinical samples. The development of molecular methods has shown that complex biofilm communities are immeasurably more complex than was previously thought and as such models which are currently composed of only 2 or 3 bacterial species need to reflect this complexity. To allow this we need to undertake molecular analyses of both the microbiome for bacteria and the mycobiome for fungi to allow us to develop models to test novel methods of biofilm control and eradication. We aim to take swabs from patients with Diabetics Foot Ulcers(DFU), a type of chronic wound to develop a more relevant biofilm model. This will then be used as a means of testing future treatments regimes.REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/EM/0078
Date of REC Opinion
23 Apr 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion