May 30, 2012 Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have developed a novel
approach for eradicating drug-resistant bacteria from wounds and
skin infections, using light to trigger the controlled release
of nitric oxide. The UCSC team developed a photoactive compound
that releases nitric oxide when exposed to light, and loaded it
into a porous, biocompatible material that could be applied as a
sprayable powder. In laboratory tests, the light-triggered
nitric oxide treatment eradicated a highly drug-resistant strain
of Acinetobacter baumannii, a type of gram-negative bacteria
that causes hard-to-treat and potentially lethal infections
throughout the world, including serious infections in soldiers
wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. The team led by Pradip
Mascharak, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC Santa
Cruz, and graduate student Brandon Heilman published their
results in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).
The paper is currently available online and will be featured on
the cover of a future pr