After the Spring Festival, the COVID-19 pandemic began rampaging Wuhan. The medical care providers of local hospitals and those dispatched from other provinces were constantly dealing with excessive workloads and experiencing tremendous pressure. After long-time use of personal protective equipment and disinfectants, the skins of the faces and hands of many medical personnel were damaged. After knowing this, Dr. Wu Yiguang with the College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University donated the wound-repairing and protective products developed by his team to several hospitals of Wuhan. The donations were much appreciated by the personnel working on the front line of medical response.

After knowing the dire condition of frontline medical professionals, the team led by Wu Yiguang immediately contacted Wuhan Union Hospital, Zhongnan Hospital, Red Cross Hospital and Tianyou Hospital, and donated 1800 pieces of Anpushu ® wound-healing ointments and 1440 vials of Anpushu ® dressing sprays, which had an total value of about 520,000 yuan. The donated products are developed by Shenzhen University and made by Jiangxi Guangzhi Jinhui Medical Product Company Limited. These high-tech wound healing products developed using new marine bio-material technology and bionics design can boost autogenous healing and deliver long-lasting anti-bacterial and balanced wound-healing effects.

Wu Yiguang explained thatfront-linemedical professionals must protect themselves from contact infections, but long-time use of masks and goggles may damage facial skins and give rise to pustules. Repeated use of latex gloves, disinfectants and hand sanitizers can damage the hand skins of medical personnel. Without appropriate care, the likelihood of infection will increase. Traditional disinfectants have no long-lasting antibacterial and antiviral effects. The Anpushu ® product series developed by the team led by Wu Yiguang offer a very good solution. The cationic high molecular aminodextran content of the products can form a compact and breathable physical barrier on the wounds and skins, delivering long-lasting antibacterial and antiviral effects. Such dressing material is safe and non-toxic to human body and has no side effects. The dressing spray is like invisible gloves that can be easily washed off.

According to relevant sources, the product is the first chitosan-based type II medical material that won the registration certificate for “modified chitin bio-dressing” in China. Chitosan is the deacetylation product of marine bio-material chitin. Currently, chitosan-based biomaterials have been widely used in wound healing. Applying the approach of chitin biomimetic chemical modification, the team led by Wu Yiguang has molecularly modified lower organism’s glycosaminoglycan chitin and produced sol type epidermal scaffold devoid of living cells using tissue engineering technology. As a safe and provisional antibacterial epidermis substitute, the implant has the composite effects of simple functional drug loaded dressing, antibiotics for external use and healing promoting drugs. This novel type of sterile wet wound self-healing technology has been widely used to treat various types of skin wounds. The product can deliver antibacterial, balanced repairing, fast healing, pain control and hemostasis effects. The product series have been mass produced to treat hundreds of thousands of patients, especially those with burns and scalds and the elderly patients with bedsores, for the benefits of infection control, fast healing and balanced repairing.

The first batch of medical materials donated by the team led by Wu Yiguang have been sent to Wuhan Union Hospital, Zhongnan Hospital, Red Cross Hospital and Tianyou Hospital via the green channel offered by JD logistics. The preparation of the second batch is already underway.