For decades, we’ve known that antimicrobial peptides are potent killers of bacteria. Peptides carry a positive electrostatic charge, which naturally attracts the negative charge bacteria carry. Once attached, the knife-like structure of peptides puncture bacterial membranes, killing the cells.  

What hasn’t been known—until now—is how to protect vulnerable parts of the peptide from natural enzymes in the human body. In nature, peptides are fragile molecules. Enzymes can destroy them in seconds. To be effective bacteria killers, peptides need protection.  

To be effective bacteria killers, peptides need protection  

Amferia solves that problem with an innovative, patented hydrogel platform that encases peptides in a solid gel, leaving only the knife-like structure free to attract and puncture bacterial cells.

Because peptides kill bacteria in a physical—as opposed to chemical—process, Amferia products kill even bacteria that has become resistant to antibiotic drugs.

Amferia’s hydrogel stabilizes and protects the peptides for up to five days in biological environments, keeping them actively killing bacteria that entire time. Amferia harnesses peptides in a safe, stable, non-toxic and clinically applicable form, allowing them to kill bacteria without harming anything else in the body.

Amferia’s proprietary antimicrobial technology consists of bio-inspired and amphiphilic antibacterial polymers that target, rapidly bind and kill up to 99.99% of bacteria upon contact—including numerous strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria like MRSA and MDR E. Coli. 

The material is selective and targets only bacteria while being entirely non-toxic to the human and animal body. 

Now, Amferia has developed this platform into its first in-market product—wound dressing for animal care. Ultimately, the goal is to bring this technology into the market as new and effective products to treat patients at risk of acquiring dangerous skin and wound infections. 

Amferia’s approach to killing bacteria

• 1. Binds and kills bacterial loads in seconds—including antibiotic resistant bacteria
• 2. Highly potent and targets only bacteria
• 3. Completely harmless to human and animal cells
• 4. Does not release any antimicrobials into the wound environment

Derived from the mammalian immune system, antimicrobial peptides are powerful molecules that can rapidly and selectively kill bacteria—including antibiotic resistant bacteria—and prevent bacterial infections.

Until today, antimicrobial peptides have had poor stability

These peptides have been present in mammals for millions of years and have a unique way of killing bacteria by rapidly disrupting the bacteria’s cell membrane through something called electrostatic and amphiphilic interaction. You can think of peptides as a highly specialised soap-like molecule designed to kill bacterial cells by ripping off their skin. 

Antimicrobial peptides carry a net-positive charge and a molecular structure that includes hydrophobic and hydrophilic characteristics. These two factors allow peptides to attract bacterial cells—which carry a net-negative charge and are also amphiphilic—and bind to them, before puncturing their membrane and killing the cell.

Peptides destroy bacterial cells in a physical process, which means bacteria have a very low probability of evolving resistance the way they have been able to against antibiotics, which work chemically. 

Until today, antimicrobial peptides have had poor stability. In the past, their fragility has made antimicrobial peptides challenging for clinical applications. High doses of antimicrobial peptides were needed, which increased costs and, since at those doses peptides were classified as pharma products, prolonged the time-to-market.

As a result, past efforts to develop market-ready products featuring this valuable antimicrobial technology have faced substantial hurdles.

Amferia has solved this problem by implementing a scientifically robust approach that covalently and permanently bind antimicrobial peptides to the surface of a soft, ordered and amphiphilic hydrogel pad.

These permanent bonds protect the vulnerable portion of the peptide molecule and fix them in place, while leaving their bacteria-killing mechanism free to attract and destroy bacterial cells. They also ensure no peptides leak into the wound. Antimicrobial peptides fixed to an underlying hydrogel pad allowed Amferia to develop a safe, efficient and cost-effective design for an antimicrobial wound dressing.  

Amferia has solved this problem by permanently binding the peptides to an amphiphilic hydrogel

This design provides the needed balance between stability and activity.

The end-product is a singular material that does not leach or release any peptides or substances into the body, but rather acts locally as a contact-killing medical device—which will enable faster clinical translation.

Previous antimicrobial peptide technologies utilize peptides in their pristine form, which renders them inactive in a few minutes. Amferia’s innovation enables the bound peptides to remain stable and active for up to five days. Current testing indicates the product we’re developing for wound care will be shelf-stable for up to eighteen months, and potentially up to two years.

Read about our first product using the technology >

Amferia’s technology is born out of years of research performed at Chalmers University of Technology. The concept behind Amferia’s antibacterial properties are enabled by a new material known as amphiphilic antimicrobial hydrogel.

An amphiphilic substance is one that displays both hydrophilic and hydrophobic characteristics. Comprised of more than 70% water, the hydrogel is soft and flexible, making it useful for numerous medical applications.

Amferia’s technology is based on a new material known as amphiphilic antimicrobial hydrogels

The surface of amphiphilic hydrogel consists of antimicrobial peptides that are covalently and permanently bound to the hydrogels amphiphilic structure—forming a single material. The material interacts with bacterial cells and, disrupts the bacterial cell wall rapidly, effectively killing the bacteria.

Testing proves that the amphiphilic antimicrobial hydrogel does not release any substances into the wound or the environment. This singular material can be configured into antimicrobial products ranging from wound care dressings to antiseptic sprays to mechanically durable devices such as catheters and implants.  

To date, analysis confirms that Amferia amphiphilic antimicrobial hydrogel has up to 99.99% kill rate against multiple gram-negative and gram-positive bacterial strains, including MRSA, MDR E. Coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

It has also been proven to be non-toxic to the body as per ISO 10993 biocompatibility evaluations, namely acute toxicity, cytotoxicity, skin sensitisation & irritation, implantation and material mediated pyrogenicity. 

Amferia's first product for human wound care and animal wound care has been developed for easy applicability and functionality, as proven in numerous pre-clinical and clinical studies. More products and broader applications are in the pipeline.

Read about possible applications of Amferia's innovation >

The antimicrobial efficacy of Amferia’s technology platform and its safety in lab and animal studies have been verified in numerous pre-clinical studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

The studies describe evidence of Amferia’s technology through fluorescence microscopy against multiple strains of bacteria, including resistant bacteria. An animal infection study demonstrates the real-time effectiveness of Amferia hydrogel in eradicating bacteria from a wound. 

In 2022, Amferia’s technology platform was verified in a new form for potential spray-based applications. The base technology was reformulated as small particles that can be sprayed for applications in deep wounds. The results demonstrated excellent reduction of the broad bacterial bio burden including resistant bacteria up to 4 log reduction (or 99.99%) bacterial colonies. This study and others are now published in peer-reviewed scientific journals as listed below. 

Pre-clinical studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals

• — Anti-biofilm coatings to medical implants, Atefyekta et. al. published in Acta Biomaterialia — 2019
• ‍— Nanostructured elastomeric materials for biomaterial applications, Rajasekharan et. al. published in ACS Nano — 2020‍
• ‍— Antimicrobial Peptide-Functionalized Mesoporous Hydrogels, Atefyekta, Blomstrand et. al. published in ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering — 2021‍
• — Cross-Linked Lyotropic Liquid Crystal Particles Functionalized with Antimicrobial Peptides, Blomstrand et. al. published in International Journal of Pharmaceutics — 2022
• — Multifunctional Surface Modification of PDMS for Antibacterial Contact Killing and Drug-Delivery of Polar, Nonpolar and Amphiphilic Drugs, Stepulane et. al. published in ACS Applied Biomaterials — 2022
• — Lyotropic liquid crystal elastomers for drug delivery, Stepulane et. al. published in Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces—2023‍
• ‍Upcoming papers, under peer-review or preparation‍
• — In vivo biostability and endotoxin binding properties of a hydrogel functionalized with antimicrobial peptides, Blomstrand et. al.
• — Antibacterial and hemolytic activity of antimicrobial peptides in solution and attached to a hydrogel surface, Blomstrand et. al.

In a study involving 40 healthy volunteers, Amferia dressing was applied on the intact skin of the subjects’ lower arms. The study was a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled evaluation of the efficacy of Amferia dressing on eradicating bacteria from a clinically relevant surface. 

The human skin is a source of bacteria for certain wound infections, for example in surgery wounds. The reduction of bacteria on skin after three hours of dressing application was examined. An average bacterial reduction by 1,000 times (i.e. 99.9%) was observed after application of Amferia wound dressing. In some cases where bacterial load was high, an almost 99.99% reduction was seen (as below).

The image below shows swab cultures from one sample and demonstrates the antimicrobial efficacy of the Amferia hydrogel wound dressing on human skin. The study and statistical analysis is now completed and published in the Journal of Wound Care.