In a breakthrough discovery, researchers have found a compound that accelerates wound healing in diabetes patients, which can help to make new treatment strategies.
University of Notre Dame researchers have reported the discovery of a MMP-9 inhibitor referred to as ND-336 which can help in healing diabetic wounds.
The researchers had previously believed that two enzymes called matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), MMP-8 and MMP-9, might play a role in the body's response to wound healing in diabetic mice.
The researchers used the MMP-9 inhibitor referred to as ND-322, which accelerated wound healing in diabetic mice.
Lead researcher Mayland Chang said that ND-336 was a six-fold more potent inhibitor than ND-322 and has 50-fold selectivity towards inhibition of MMP-9 than MMP-8, adding that ND-322 has three-fold selectivity towards inhibition of MMP-9 compared to MMP-8.
Researchers compared the efficacy of ND-336 versus ND-322 and found that wounds treated with ND-336 healed significantly faster than those treated with ND-322 because of the better selectivity of ND-336 than ND-322 for inhibition of MMP-9 over MMP-8.
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In the study, they applied the enzyme MMP-8 to wounds of diabetic mice and found accelerated wound healing and also combined the MMP-9 inhibitor ND-336 and the enzyme MMP-8 and found further acceleration of diabetic wound healing.
Chang said that the compound ND-336 had potential as a therapeutic to accelerate or facilitate wound healing in diabetic patients.
The study is published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.