Thaindian News

Washington, April 15 (IANS) A natural product found in both coconut oil and human breast milk - lauric acid — could be a possible new acne treatment, research says.
A bioengineering doctoral student from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) developed a “smart delivery system”, capable of delivering lauric acid-filled nano-scale bombs directly to skin-dwelling bacteria (Propionibacterium acnes) that cause common acne.

Common acne, also known as “acne vulgaris”, afflicts more than 85 percent of teenagers and over 40 million people in the US. Current treatments have undesirable side effects, including redness and burning.

“It’s a good feeling to know that I have a chance to develop a drug that could help people with acne,” said Dissaya Nu Pornpattananangkul, who conducted the research in the Nanomaterials and Nanomedicine Lab of UCSD nano-engineering professor Liangfang Zhang.

The new smart delivery system includes gold nanoparticles attached to surfaces of lauric acid-filled nano-bombs.

The gold nanoparticles help the liposomes locate acne-causing bacteria based on the skin microenvironment.

Once the nano-bombs reach the bacterial membranes, the acidic microenvironment causes the gold nanoparticles to drop off. This frees the liposomes carrying lauric acid payloads to fuse with bacterial membranes and kill the Propionibacterium acnes bacteria, a UCSD release said.

“Precisely controlled nano-scale delivery of drugs that are applied topically to the skin could significantly improve the treatment of skin bacterial infections,” Zhang said.

“All building blocks of the nano-bombs are either natural products or have been approved for clinical use, which means these nano-bombs are likely to be tested on humans in the near future,” he added.

The findings have been published in ACS Nano.