Honey dressing on a leg ulcer with tendon exposure in a patient with type 2 diabetes

Recent Advances in Smart Hydrogels Prepared by Ionizing Radiation Technology for Biomedical Applications

Materials with excellent biocompatibility and targeting can be widely used in the biomedical field. Hydrogels are an excellent biomedical material, which are similar to living tissue and cannot affect the metabolic process of living organisms. Moreover, the three-dimensional network structure of hydrogel is conducive to the storage and slow release of drugs. Compared to the traditional hydrogel preparation technologies, ionizing radiation technology has high efficiency, is green, and has environmental protection. This technology can easily adjust mechanical properties, swelling, and so on. This review provides a classification of hydrogels and different preparation methods and highlights the advantages of ionizing radiation technology in smart hydrogels used for biomedical applications.

Honey dressing: a missed way for orthopaedic wound care

Purpose

Orthopaedic-related wounds are critical situations calling for care to avoid deep infections and its consequences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of using honey for care of orthopaedic-related wounds with limited resources.

Patients and methods

This prospective study included 50 cases with an average age of 38.18 (range 17–63) years with 38 males and 12 females. The most frequent wound location was the leg (41 patients; 82%), then the foot (six patients; 12%), and the ankle in three patients (6%). The aetiologies were open fractures (34 cases; 68%), infected tibial non-unions (nine cases; 18%), and post-operative infections (seven cases; 14%). Exposed tendon was present in three cases. Bone exposure was present in two cases. Deep infection was present in 29 cases (58%). Besides treating the primary cause, a ribbon of gauze soaked with honey was applied to the wounds after thorough saline washing.

Results

Wound sizes were variable. All cases showed improvement in all parameters with complete wound healing and full coverage of bone and tendons. Recurrence of deep infection occurred in three cases and treated by debridement. One case needed sequestrectomy of a small exposed tibial cortical fragment. Exposed tendon cases showed superficial necrosis which was treated by simple debridement. Initial mild itching occurred in five patients with spontaneous resolution.

Conclusion

With treating the underlying aetiology and optimising the patient’s general condition, honey was an effective, simple, and affordable method of wound care in different orthopaedic conditions even with exposed bone or tendons.

The Rediscovery of Honey for Skin Repair: Recent Advances in Mechanisms for Honey-Mediated Wound Healing and Scaffolded Application Techniques

Honey is a honey-bee product obtained mainly by the enzymatic processing of nectar from a variety of plants, which leads to the wide range of colours and flavours available on the market. These organoleptic and nutritional features are influenced by the chemical composition, which in turn depends on the botanical origin. Bioactive compounds account for honey beneficial activity in medical applications, which explains the extensive use of honey in ethno-pharmacology since antiquity, from cough remedies to dermatological treatments. Wound healing is one of the main therapeutic uses of honey, and various design options in pharmaceutical technology such as smart delivery systems and advanced dressings are currently being developed to potentiate honey’s valuable properties for better performance and improved final outcome. In this review, we will focus on the latest research that discloses crucial factors in determining what properties are most beneficial when considering honey as a medicinal product. We will present the most recent updates on the possible mechanisms responsible for the exceptional effects of this ageless therapeutical remedy on skin repair. Furthermore, the state-of-the-art in application techniques (incorporation into scaffolds as an alternative to direct administration) used to enhance honey-mediated wound-healing properties are explored.

Potent antioxidant peptides derived from honey major protein enhance tolerance of eukaryotic cells toward oxidative stress

Honey is known for its medicinal benefits and receiving renewed attention as natural medicine. Studies on health benefits of honey attributed its antioxidant activity to phenolic compounds, but the contribution of proteins and peptides to the antioxidant activity of honey is lacking. The aim of this study was to explore the contribution of proteins and peptides to the antioxidant activity of honey, which remained obscure for decades.

Total honey proteins (THP) were isolated by dialysis method and hydrolyzed through simulated gastrointestinal digestion. The hydrolysates were fractionated using size-exclusion chromatography. The antioxidant activity was determined by using superoxide radical-scavenging, DPPH reduction and intracellular ROS assays.

THP was shown to exhibit superoxide-scavenging activity but its pepsin-hydrolysate (HP-p) showed superior scavenging activity. The HP-p produced five peptide fractions (P1~P5) when fractionated on Sephacryl S-100 size-exclusion column. The five fractions showed superoxide-scavenging activities and DPPH reducing activities, whereas the slow-eluting peptide fractions (P3 and P4) were the most potent. MALDI-TOF/MS analysis identified a pentapeptide (TSNTF) as the dominant peptide in the active fractions P3 and P4. Human colonic epithelial cells treated with P3 and P4 peptides exhibited lower intracellular ROS, when oxidative stress was induced by H2O2 or diethyl maleate (DEM), indicating strong tolerance to oxidative stress. The viabilities of human cells or yeast cells were largely decreases under oxidative stress, but treated cells with P3 and P4 showed higher viability compared with the untreated cells. The results are the first to describe a novel antioxidant peptide from honey that confer ex vivo anti-oxidative function within a complicated milieu of eukaryotic cells and pave the way for its potential as nutraceutical or therapeutic peptide for risk-reduction of oxidative-stress and related diseases.

Graphical abstract

Honey Combination Therapies for Skin and Wound Infections: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Topical application of medical grade honey is recommended for the clinical management of wound infections. The suitability of honey as a wound healing agent is largely due to its antibacterial activity, immune modulatory properties, and biocompatibility. Despite the usefulness of honey in wound healing, chronic wound infections continue to be a global problem requiring new and improved therapeutic interventions. Several recent studies have investigated the effects of combining honey with other therapies or agents with the aim of finding more efficacious treatments. In this systematic review, the database PubMed was used to carry out a search of the scientific literature on the combined effects of honey and other therapies on antimicrobial activity and wound and skin healing. The search revealed that synergistic or additive antimicrobial effects were observed in vitro when honey was combined with antibiotics, bacteriophages, antimicrobial peptides, natural agents, eg, ginger or propolis and other treatment approaches such as the use of chitosan hydrogel. Outcomes depended on the type of honey, the combining agent or treatment and the microbial species or strain. Improved wound healing was also observed in vivo in mice when honey was combined with laser therapy or bacteriophage therapy. More clinical studies in humans are required to fully understand the effectiveness of honey combination therapies for the treatment of skin and wound infections.