Scientists have developed a gel that heals open wounds - even if they are decades old

American scientists successfully completed clinical trials of gene therapy for the treatment of open wounds. It was tested on 28 people with dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DBE), a hereditary a disease in which human skin is so vulnerable that it can burst and peel off even from minor injuries. It is also called butterfly syndrome. There are no approved treatments, patients can only do bandages and take painkillers.

DBE is caused by a mutation in the COL7A1 gene, which codes for collagen, which is responsible for holding skin layers together. As a result, the layers are poorly connected, and friction easily disengages them - which causes wounds. Scientists have developed a gel in which working copies of the COL7A1 gene are inserted into the herpes simplex virus type 1 vector. It is modified so that it cannot spread to other parts of the body and bypasses the immune system, delivering COL7A1 directly to damaged tissue.

During double blind experiment

Participants' skin was gel-treated weekly. After 3 months, those who received the real gel and not the dummy had 71% of their wounds closed (versus 20% of those who received placebo). 22-year-old Vincenzo Mascoli, a participant in the experiment, said that after 4 months of using the gel, he began to close a large wound on his back, which he had had all his life. After another 2 months, it closed completely, and the pain decreased significantly.

The only drawback of such gene therapy is that the effect is not permanent. In many patients whose old wounds closed, they reopened after a few months: after six months, 67% of healed wounds remained closed. However, with repeated use of the gel, no side effects were noticed, so the course can be repeated if necessary.

The American pharmacological company Krystal Biotech is already in talks with regulators to get permission to put such a gel on the market. A decision should be made at the beginning of 2023.

In its current form, the gel can only help existing wounds: it cannot scar old closed wounds or penetrate the skin to protect against future wounds. Although DBE is a rare disease, this is only the beginning of the application of new technology. In the future, the researchers plan to develop options suitable for treating other skin conditions.