Diabetic Skin Infection

Diabetes is a growing global health issue,
especially with the growing problem of obesity.

It is estimated that there are over 415 million people living with diabetes currently and will grow to over 642 million by the year 2040. The growth is especially prominent in emerging countries such as China and India. Patients with diabetes often have significant co-morbid conditions that impact multiple organs with the most prominent being the kidneys, the eyes, the heart, and high rates of skin infection. Skin infection such as diabetic foot ulcer is a huge problem for patients with diabetes. Approximately 15% of patients with diabetes develops diabetic foot ulcer and around 6% of those patients will develop complications that will require hospitalization. The most dreaded complication with diabetic skin infection is often the need for amputations and approximately 80% of amputations in a diabetic patient start with a skin infection.

Outside of being a significant medical complication for the patients, diabetic skin infection is also a significant burden to the health care economy. It is estimated that on average, the annual incremental cost of treating a diabetic patient with a skin infection such as diabetic foot ulcer is around $11,000 – $17,000 per patient, which leads to as high as $13 billion total cost annually. The mainstay of care currently is mainly focused around wound care and antibiotics as needed if there is evidence of infection. The infection associated with a diabetic skin infection is mostly multi-microbial but dominated by gram-positive organisms such as Staphylococcus aureus and the gram-negative bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A topical treatment leveraging the nanosponge technology to neutralize toxins associated with these bacterial infections and thus to shorten the wound healing time may be attractive to improve clinical outcomes and decrease the overall health care financial burden.