Study discovers how to speed up healing in diabetics

A study led by the University of Coimbra (UC) and Roskilde University (Denmark) has shown that inhibiting small molecules accelerates wound healing in people with diabetes.

The research indicates an almost complete healing of these wounds after ten days , through a molecular approach that simultaneously inhibits two microRNAs, revealed this Tuesday the UC, in a statement sent to the Lusa news agency.

The discovery “could pave the way for the development of new therapies to improve wound treatment in people diagnosed with diabetes,” whose healing “is slow and complex, which favors the appearance of difficult-to-heal ulcers.”

According to scientists Ermelindo Leal and Eugénia Carvalho, the objective was to investigate whether blocking two microRNAs could aid healing , namely miR-146a-5p and miR-29a-3p, small molecules that regulate gene expression and which were found to be increased in the skin of people with diabetes.

The results open up new possibilities for the development of therapies that act directly on these two molecules, "with the potential to modulate key processes involved in wound healing, such as inflammation, oxidative stress, the formation of new blood vessels, and the remodeling of the extracellular matrix," said researchers from the Obesity, Diabetes, and Complications group at the UC Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology and the Center for Innovation in Biomedicine and Biotechnology.

"These future molecular therapy targets may have the potential to significantly improve wounds and patient recovery, potentially reducing hospital stays, reducing the risk of amputations, and thus alleviating the associated economic and social burden," they said.

They can also “enhance similar strategies applied to other pathologies marked by poor healing or chronic inflammation”.

According to UC, the results were achieved by testing the consequences of inhibiting microRNAs using molecules designed for this purpose, both in human cells and in mice with type 1 diabetes.

Subsequently, the consequences in terms of inflammation, formation of new blood vessels and tissue remodeling were analyzed.

In animal tests, the approach “significantly reduced wound size within ten days, with changes that led to stronger, more structurally organized skin.”

The study "has great social relevance, especially in a global context where diabetes is a disease that affects millions of people —causing pain, recurrent infections, frequent hospitalizations, and even amputations—and shows a trend of continuous growth," highlighted Ermelindo Leal and Eugénia Carvalho.