Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Cancer-Fighting Therapy Could Speed Up Wound Healing

August 1, 2016 By University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences

A type of targeted therapy that has shown promising results treating advanced melanoma could also be used to help speed up how the skin repairs itself from injury, UCLA researchers have found, providing a potential new way to accelerate healing of acute and chronic wounds.

In the United States alone, chronic wounds affect more than 6.5 million people and an estimated $50 billion is spent annually treating these conditions. Many areas of medicine—from improving recovery times after surgery to reducing skin-related secondary effects of cancer treatments and other diseases—can benefit from speeding up the skin’s healing process.

UCLA researchers investigated a new class of cancer therapy called BRAF inhibitors. These drugs work by blocking a mutated gene in melanoma, which rapidly shrinks the tumor. This can set off a cellular cascade in other skin cells in a process called paradoxical MAPK activation, which can lead to a variety of skin-related side effects, said Dr. Antoni Ribas, director of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Tumor Immunology Program and senior author of the study.

“We set out to take advantage of our mechanistic understanding of these drugs and see if we could turn a side effect into a potentially beneficial effect,” Ribas said. “These agents have great potential to be used to develop topical treatments to greatly accelerate wound healing.”

The three-year study is published online today in the journal Nature Communications.

Led by Helena Escuin-Ordinas, the study’s first author and a scientist in Ribas’ lab, the research team first hypothesized that by inducing paradoxical MAPK activation in cells of the skin’s outer layer (the epidermis, which plays a major role in the initial stage of wound healing) they could restore the barrier function of the skin.

The team conducted experiments to demonstrate that local application of the BRAF inhibitor drug vemurafenib (brand name Zelboraf) to the skin could accelerate cutaneous wound healing.

The scientists then performed a series of further analyses to confirm that vemurafenib activated the skin cells, leading to the faster healing of wounds, Escuin-Ordinas said.

“Finding a cure for acute and chronic wounds remains a worldwide challenge,” Escuin-Ordinas said. “Topical BRAF inhibitors hold great promise to promote skin recovery, not only after injury such as from abrasions, ulcers or surgery, but in skin-related side effects that result from treatment for a wide variety of diseases, such as cancer and diabetes, where current therapies are not highly effective.”

The researchers plan to develop pre-clinical models to further study these mechanisms, with the goal to begin clinical studies of potential topical BRAF treatments in the near future, Ribas said.

Related Articles Read More >

Nanoscopic imaging showing human keratinocyte-matrix interaction.
These smart materials are key to advancing regenerative medicine
A series of before-and-after brain scans showing improvement in long COVID patients after hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Long COVID study finds potential in hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Rockwell Experience Center opens at Dean Kamen’s Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute
What is microscale 3D printing? Lessons learned from Mayo Clinic
“mdo
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest medical device business news, application and technology trends.

DeviceTalks Weekly

See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe