A new strategy to treat Pseudomonas aeruginosa infected burn wounds: Antimicrobial cocktails as potent topical therapy

Abstract

Burn insults are traumatic as they inflict intense damage on different layers of skin and other organic body tissues, causing alterations in host's immune system, thereby, impairing the wound healing process. Weakened immune system and damaged natural cutaneous barrier opens a doorway for microorganisms to inhabit and infect burn wounds, lengthening hospital stays, and escalating the mortality rates. The most prominent burn wound infection-causing bacteria is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is accountable for higher mortality rates and is most ubiquitous among all the other burn wound pathogens because of its inclination to flourish in the moist environment causing invasive infections and selective advantage to grow within burn wound exudates. Due to the alarming rise in multi-drug resistance, the conventional therapy to treat burn insults and subsequent infections involving surgical removal of devitalized tissue, flushing wound site with normal saline, and employment of antibiotics topically is rendered ineffective suppressing physicians in their treatment choices and resulting in adverse outcomes observed in burn units. Despite advancements in the burn care field, rising drug resistance and its related consequences is necessitating vigorous research to devise an antimicrobial therapy targeting three broad areas collectively, for instance, P. aeruginosa infection management, immunomodulation, and wound healing. Hence, we propose formulating an antimicrobial cocktail exhibiting anti-infective, immunomodulatory, and wound healing properties having potential to improve survival rates among the P. aeruginosa infected burn populations, owning to its simple and easy application in resource-limited settings.