Topical Applications of Ozone and Ozonated Oils as Anti-Infective Agents: An Insight into the Patent Claims

Abstract

Orthodox medicine has been very active in the field of topical anti-infective agents and current chemotherapy has procured valid antibiotics, antivirals, vaccines, antibodies, and antiparasitic drugs to be parenterally and/or topically used. However, these drugs may cause side effects and sometimes provide unsatisfactory results because pathogens become drug-resistant. Another drawback is represented by their cost, which compromise their use or their availability in poor Countries. Therefore, there is a critical need for new strategies to treat dermatological affections. The old intuition for using ozone in the treatment of necrotic wounds, especially if due to anaerobic bacteria, is now justified by the studies about reactive oxygen species generation by granulocytes and macrophages as the first line of defense during an infection. As a consequence, the disinfectant value of ozone has been increasingly appreciated during the last fifteen years. This review summarizes the patents filed and issued, with particular emphasis to the more recent patents, about the anti-infective topical use of ozone: i) in the gaseous form; ii) after gaseous ozone saturation of aqueous, not-oily pharmaceutical vehicles and solvents; iii) where gaseous ozone chemically reacts with unsaturated substrates leading to therapeutically active ozonated derivatives. We hope that recent advances and a better understanding of the ozone chemistry and biology will be able to create the mental attitude to prove the validity of large-scale therapeutic use of both ozone and ozone derivatives as topical anti-infective agents by performing multicenter, randomized clinical studies, as aptly requested by orthodox medicine.

The Morphometrical and Histopathological Changes which were Observed after Topical Ozone Therapy on an Exophytic Fibrous Gingival Lesion: A Case Report

“…Few authors [3,4,9] have proposed that the base oils (olive oil, sunflower oil, coconut oil, etc. ), during their ozonation processes, trap O 3 in the form of a stable ozonide.…”

“…Thus, the produced stable ozonide, when it encounters the warm exudates of the wound, slowly decomposes to reactive ozone. Which it readily dissolves in water, it generates hydrogen peroxide and lipoperoxides, which can explain its prolonged disinfectant and stimulatory activity on ulcerated chronic wounds [4]. Moreover, the phenomenon of an improved wound healing after the ozone therapy has been related to the rapidly changing cell types and to the release of cytokines that modulate the complex healing process [10][11][12].…”

“…Now-a-days, ozone gas which is dissolved in an oil base is gaining importance due to its excellent curative results, simple application, longer-term effects and non toxic nature [1][2][3][4]. In the past years, the therapeutic effect of ozonated oil was attributed to its antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiparasitic, antihypoxic, analgesic and immunomodulatory effects on biological systems [1,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Intrauterine ozone treatment of puerperal disorders in domestic ruminants: a review

“…There are many different forms of ozone preparations, such as: creams, gas, injections, palettes, foam, pearls and boluses (TRAVAGLI et al, 2009). The major use of ozone in veterinary practice is in the form of foam and pearls for treatment of RFM, clinical metritis and endometritis (SCROLLAVEZZA et al, 1997;MARUSI et al, 1999;MARUSI et al, 2000).…”

Prophylaxis and therapeutic potential of ozone in buiatrics: Current knowledge

“…In addition, ozone may influence the immune system through the stimulation of lymphocytes, monocytes and neutrophils to release cytokines such as interferons ␣, ␤, ␥, tumor necrosis factor ␣, interleukins 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, granulopoietine and transforming growth factor ␤ (Ducusin et al, 2003;Larini and Bocci, 2005;Ohtsuka et al, 2006). These cytokines may re-establish cellular immunity during inflammatory processes (Travagli et al, 2009). Moreover, ozone may stimulate the proliferation of B and T lymphocytes (Korzun et al, 2008).…”