Doctoral themes 2023

Multi-functional natural based wound dressings for malignant fungating wounds 

Supervisors

Alexandra Antunes, alexandra.antunes@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Diana Silva, dianacristinasilva@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Registration Institution

Instituto Superior Técnico

Project description

Malignant fungating wounds (MFW) derive from the tumour or metastasis infiltration into the skin, afferent blood and/or lymph vessels, and their complete closure, although desirable may not be attainable. MWF damage goes beyond physical suffering, raising strong psychological stress to the patient and family/carers. The best current treatment relies on dressings to control exudate and bleeding, on topical application or oral antiseptics and anti-inflammatory drugs. The prevalence of MFW is still unclear, but reports advance that up to 5-15% of advanced cancer patients may develop MFW, and can cause various physical symptoms, e.g., pain, exudate, bleeding and malodour. In this work, natural polymers (e.g., alginate, casein) and natural derived drugs (e.g., ursolic acid, oxymatrine) will be combined to obtain non-adherent multilayer dressings. Taking advantage of the polymers’ capacity to manage exudate and bleeding, while providing a therapeutic release of the drugs, known to stimulate anti-cancer, antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antipruritic responses. Extensive characterisation of the physical properties crucial for dressings will be carried out, as well as studies regarding dressings’ capacity to withstand sterilisation methods. In vivo case studies are planned, in which pre-existing wounds in animals will be exposed to the synthesised dressings to evaluate healing progress, guided by veterinary doctors. The proposed work is expected to give a valuable contribution to the development of new medicated dressings for MFW. The student will be integrated in a multidisciplinary group, with collaborations with foreign universities, clinic and industry, and will have the open opportunity to do research abroad.

Keywords

Wound dressings

malignant fungating wounds

natural based polymers

materials characterisation

plant-based drugs