Drug Discov Ther. 2026;20(3):273-279. (DOI: 10.5582/ddt.2026.01030)

Associations between wound exudate amino acid profiles and microbial dissimilarity in wound and peri-wound skin in healing wounds

Kunimitsu M, Tsunoda M, Akase T, Kinoshita M, Nakagami G

Dysbiotic wound microbiota, which is dissimilar to that of the peri-wound skin, delays healing in hard-to-heal wounds. However, rapid and practical methods for detecting wound dysbiosis are lacking and the characteristics of the wound environment in which dysbiosis occurs remain unclear. Consequently, microbiota-targeted care to prevent delayed healing has not yet been established. This study investigated the association between amino acid profiles in wound exudates and the degree of microbial dissimilarity between the wound and peri-wound skin microbiota. Nine wounds from eight patients receiving home care were analyzed. The concentrations of 18 amino acids were measured using high-performance liquid chromatography, and the microbiota were detected using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The microbial dissimilarity was assessed using the weighted UniFrac dissimilarity index, and correlations between the relative abundances of amino acids, amino acid ratios, and microbial dissimilarities were evaluated using Spearman's rank correlation. Most of the wounds were in the healing phase. The relative abundance of arginine showed a strong correlation with microbial dissimilarity (ρ = – 0.80, p = 0.01). Additionally, eight amino acid ratios (arginine/asparagine and arginine/tyrosine) were significantly correlated with microbial dissimilarity. These findings support the development of point-of-care tools for assessing wound microbiota and improving wound management.

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