‘Ionic’ liquid salts can bypass skin and treat skin infections better

Samir Mitragotri, a chemical engineer at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his team demonstrated the use of ionic liquid salts in liquid form in treating skin infections. by killing bacteria and aiding antibiotics in penetrating the skin’s outer layer. Ionic liquids are salts—neutrally charged compounds of a positively charged and a negatively charged component—in liquid form that can penetrate outer layers of skin. The researchers tested a variety of ionic liquids for their ability to penetrate the skin and bacterial biofilms and found the ionic liquid formulations almost completely cured infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella enterica. These ionic salts have minimal toxicity and have various applications in medicine.

Read more in Nature.