Unveiling the therapeutic journey of snail mucus in diabetic wound care.

A diabetic wound (DW) is an alteration in the highly orchestrated physiological sequence of wound healing especially, the inflammatory phase. These alterations result in the generation of oxidative stress and inflammation at the injury site. This further leads to the impairment in the angiogenesis, extracellular matrix, collagen deposition, and re-epithelialization. Additionally, in DW there is the presence of microbial load which makes the wound worse and impedes the wound healing cycle. There are several treatment strategies which have been employed by the researchers to mitigate the aforementioned challenges. However, they failed to address the multifactorial pathogenic nature of the disease. Looking at the severity of the disease researchers have explored snail mucus and its components such as achacin, allantoin, elastin, collagen, and glycosaminoglycan due to its multiple therapeutic potentials; however, glycosaminoglycan (GAGs) is very important among all because they accelerate the wound-healing process by promoting reepithelialization, vascularization, granulation, and angiogenesis at the site of injury. Despite its varied applications, the field of snail mucus in wound healing is still underexplored. The present review aims to highlight the role of snail mucus in diabetic wound healing, the advantages of snail mucus over conventional treatments, the therapeutic potential of snail mucus, and the application of snail mucus in DW. Additionally, clinical trials, patents, structural variations, and advancements in snail mucus characterization have been covered in the article.
Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
(© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)