Researchers harness shock waves to treat infections

People suffering from biofilm infections like tooth decay, sinusitis, lung infections and reactive arthritis could look for relief to shock treatment, according to researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) who discovered that shockwaves had healing power, The Times of India reported.

In an experiment, in which they used hand-held a device they developed to deliver shockwaves, the researchers disrupted a biofilm formed on a urinary catheter and in another, used shock tubes to deliver waves to mice with lung infection. Subsequently, the mice were also treated with antibiotics.

With bacteria becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, research was under way across the world to overcome this challenge and find novel ways to fight them. "Biofilm infections are life-threatening with no solutions.

Shockwave therapy will be an ultimate solution for infections like sinusitis, lung infections, reactive arthritis - all crippling diseases," said Dipshikha Chakravortty,  professor and Humboldt Fellow, department of microbiology and cell Biology at IISc, TOI reported.