Diabetes mellitus (DM) is serious threat to human health. In 2015, Indonesia ranked 7th among countries that have patients of DM or ten million people.
The disease causes complications including wounds that are difficult to heal. Therefore, many of the patients have to be amputated. Wounds can aggravate because of bacterial infections. Among those are Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Concerned with this condition, a group of students of UGM have developed solutions to heal the wound that is infected by MRSA. These students are Veterinary students, Nada Hanifah and Yusuf Farid Achmad and Pharmacy student Aida Humaira.
The three students utilise sea sponge extract. Nada explained the sea sponge contain antibacterial bioactive compounds that can accelerate wound healing.
The students made sponge gel. “The reason is that the sponge extra that has become gel with nano particle can more easily get into the skin surface and speed up the recovery,’ she said.
Nada said they first extract the sea sponge. Later they had diffusion and dilution tests to know the antibacterial activity of the extract. The nextphase is in vivo or pre-clinical test with animals to know the effectivity of nanoemulsion-gel of the extract in healing the wound. After a while, it is concluded that nanoemulsion-gel sponge extract gives good effect to the healing of wound infected by MRSA.
Nada hoped the results would withdraw the attention from the government and related parties in order to go to the next phase, which is toxicity and clinical tests.