Turning Waste Into Insight: A Novel Proteomic Approach to Non-Invasive Wound Biomarker Discovery

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry
• Proteomics
• Wound Healing Research

Background:

• Chronic wounds, including diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and venous leg ulcers (VLUs), pose a significant health challenge.
• Current wound management lacks accurate methods for predicting healing or detecting treatment failure early.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel, non-invasive proteomic approach using discarded wound dressings.
• To identify proteomic signatures in the wound microenvironment associated with healing and non-healing outcomes in chronic wounds.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal, spatially resolved proteomic profiling of discarded wound dressings from DFU and VLU patients (n=16) over four weeks.
• Mass spectrometry analysis of soluble wound fluid, cellular, and extracellular vesicle (EV) compartments.
• Identification of protein signatures, including immune cell phenotypes and keratinocyte markers.

Main Results:

• Over 1,000 unique proteins from cells and EVs, and 489 from soluble fluid were identified.
• Distinct proteomic signatures correlated with healing versus non-healing wound trajectories.
• Patient-specific protein profiles longitudinally tracked wound size changes, demonstrating biomarker potential.

Conclusions:

• Discarded wound dressings are a valuable, untapped resource for diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in chronic wound care.
• This proteomic platform offers insights into wound microenvironments and immune responses without biopsies.
• The approach supports the development of advanced wound care technologies for precision medicine.