Grant: CIHR Fellowship

World-wide, there are about 350 million diabetes patients and approximately 15% of these patients will develop chronic wounds such as foot ulcers during their lifetime, which if unhealed may call for amputation. Besides skin lesions, the healing of perforated eardrums is also compromised. Chronic wounds not only impair the quality of life for the patients but also inflict an enormous burden on healthcare. Current treatment of chronic wounds mainly comprises conventional wound treatment with different types of dressings and bandages. Therefore, there is a great need for better treatments of chronic wounds. It has been previously shown that Granzyme B, a special enzyme, plays a detrimental role in the healing of chronic wounds. We hypothesize that pharmacologic Granzyme B inhibition by small molecules will promote wound closure and tissue remodeling. This proposal is aimed to translate our initial laboratory findings into the clinic. Data arising from these studies will inform further development of GzmB inhibitors as new drugs to treat chronic wounds.