Maggots eat up resistant bacteria - Creepy crawlies are the latest weapon in the anti-MRSA arsenal.

news@nature.com ^ | 4 May 2007 | Katharine Sanderson

[neverdem]

Close window

Published online: 4 May 2007; | doi:10.1038/news070430-13

Maggots eat up resistant bacteria

Creepy crawlies are the latest weapon in the anti-MRSA arsenal.

Katharine Sanderson

It looks bad, but it works: maggots can clean out some foot wounds better than drugs.

The drug-resistant bug MRSA has a new adversary — the maggot. Researchers in Manchester, UK, have just won a grant to compare maggots with other more hi-tech treatments for people with diabetes who suffer from infected feet.

A quarter of all people with diabetes are at risk of foot ulcers, because of the reduced blood circulation caused by the damaging effects of high blood glucose. These lesions often become infected. Antibiotic-resistant bacateria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are becoming increasingly common — and consequently increasingly hard to treat. "MRSA is not just in hospitals, it's everywhere," says team leader Andrew Boulton at Manchester University.

Antibiotics prove useless against these bugs. So Boulton decided to turn his attention to maggots. These creatures have been called into action to chew up infected tissues ever since the American Civil War, and have been used in diabetes clinics for a decade. Boulton wanted to see how they fared against MRSA.

A small initial trial, published this February, showed considerable success¹. 'Larval therapy' (the polite term for maggot treatment) was excellent for shifting MRSA infected tissue: in 12 out of 13 patients, their wounds healed after between three and five applications of maggots, each lasting four to five days. "It's primitive but effective," says Boulton.

The charity Diabetes UK has now given Boulton £98,000 (US$195,000) to test maggots versus two other treatments: silver-containing dressings and a biogun — which zaps infection by ionizing molecular oxygen and creating bug-beating superoxide radicals. The trial will involve a total of 65 patients and will begin within a few months. Boulton expects the maggots to fare the best: "We hope that this trial will confirm our findings," he says.

The trial has been temporarily held up because the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency claims that the ancient maggot-healing technique is a new therapy that requires a special licence. But Boulton expects to overcome this hurdle within a few weeks.

Boulton is also collaborating with microbiologists to find out how the treatment works. The maggots might secrete an antibacterial goo, or they might be just devouring the infected flesh. Boulton has noticed that the MRSA infection is highly concentrated around the maggots — rather like iron filings around a magnet, he says. But at the moment how and why this happens is a mystery.

Visit our newsblog to read and post comments about this story.

	Top

References

1. Bowling F. L., Salgami E. V., Boulton A. J. M., et al. Diabetes Care, 30 . 370 - 371 (2007).

	Top

Story from news@nature.com:
http://news.nature.com//news/2007/070430/070430-13.html

[Red Steel]

Bring back the leeches too!

[Cinnamon]

Gladiator movie has a scene where Russel gets his wounds cleaned up by maggots

[Yellow Rose of Texas]

BTTT!

[potlatch]

[VeritatisSplendor]

Cool. In Holland, they’ve made headway with hospital-acquired infections by testing every patient coming into the hospital and treating them as a MRSA patient until proven otherwise. Someone pointed out to me that the problem with this is that 50% of nurses test positive, but still, Holland has made progress.

I guess diabetics don’t necessarily come down with their infections in hospitals, although that’s probably where they picked up the strain in the first place.

Mrs VS

[devolve]

Why not to go to the hospital:

Chapter 100

[potlatch]

Pretty gruesome stuff.

[amchugh]

We’ve been doing maggot wound debridement in the US for a while. I guess the MRSA disinfection is a new thing though.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Leeches are commonly used as a treatment in body part reattachments.

The anticoagulants in their saliva is phenomenal for promoting and maintaining blood flow in the reattached limb or digit.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

" Boulton has noticed that the MRSA infection is highly concentrated around the maggots — rather like iron filings around a magnet, he says. But at the moment how and why this happens is a mystery. "
Maybe the maggots put out some kind of chemical enticement to trap the bacteria and then put out another chemical to kill the bacteria.... kind of how moths are attracted to lights.

[Gene Eric]

Apply 2 dozen maggots and call me in the morning.

[Polybius]

Bring back the leeches too!

Leech Therapy

[M0sby]

I saw a whole show on this a couple of years ago.
Completely FASCINATING!!!!

Along with eating only diseased tissue, the maggots secret a fluid which speeds healing.

I told EVERYONE about the show after I watched it.
I just thought that if someone had a parent/grandparent/friend who was going to lose toes or a foot or whatever to gangrene or ulcerated wounds...better to try the maggots first.

I know I would.

One of the patients on the show had had wounds for years and was going to lose a bunch of his toes.

They had these little packets of maggots all medically stored. The put placed the bandage containing the maggots on his foot (they were never seen) and then wrapped more bandages around the area.
The patient never saw the maggots. Never FELT the maggots and the before and after pictures were AMAZING!

[M0sby]

http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/som/pathology/sherman/cases.htm

REally REALLY graphic pictures here...so totally COOL though!!!
I am amazed (or maybe not amazed) that this is not used more.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

I think it is the gross or puke factor that turns most people off.
All I know is, if I ever had this done, put me under heavy sedation or put me to sleep.

[rock_lobsta]

You're eating maggots, Michael...

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Maggots eat up resistant bacteria

Finally -- a legitimate use for the common, household liberal!

[calex59]

These creatures have been called into action to chew up infected tissues ever since the American Civil War, and have been used in diabetes clinics for a decade. Boulton wanted to see how they fared against MRSA.

They have been in use for a lot longer than that!

[M0sby]

“I think it is the gross or puke factor that turns most people off.
All I know is, if I ever had this done, put me under heavy sedation or put me to sleep.”

I hear ya on that!
I think by the time you get to the point where your body has rotted away far enough that maggots are a good option...your infected body part is probably “grosser” than the maggots!

[Squeako]

I wonder if this would work for those necrotic ulcerated spider bites.

[panthermom]

You and me both!!! Eeeewwwwwwww! I did the dry heave looking at the picture.

[Panzerfaust]

This story seems a little optimistic. Larval treatment is an adjunctive therapy, not a replacement for antibiotic treatment. The article implies that the maggots are superior to antibiotic therapy, when the study never compared them to an antibiotic.

If faced with a MRSA infection, I'd place my money on antibiotics (in no particular order: vancomycin, linezolid, tigecycline or ceftobiprole) over maggots.

[mdmathis6]

mrsa bacteria are protein too....the goo the maggots excrete to break up dead tissue may very well be sucking up the bacteria as well. I’ll bet its a electro mechanical surface tension issue...living tissue has a differrent electrical/magnetic characteristic, dead tissues produce no internal chemo-electrical activity.

[mewzilla]

Frogs + Maggots = New Weapons in the War on MRSA

[mware]

WARNING

Not to be read while eating.

[Nailbiter]

cool, somewhat gross ping

[mware]

I recall reading about a soldier during the civil war who had a wound that should not have been moral but had not been tended. When they got to him, they removed the maggots, he died within 24 hours.

[neverdem]

Adult Stem/Progenitor Cells Repair Of Damaged Brain, Pancreas, Kidney Cells Newly Understood

Soil May Counteract Buckyball Danger

When the Levee Breaks: Protein Overwhelmed by Overeating Leads to Metabolic Diseases

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list. Anyone can post any unposted link as they see fit.

[traviskicks]

bookmark

[Radix]

Cool thread.

Do you think that we’ll ever go back to the “Galenic” Medicine protocols of old in other areas?

[happygrl]

Finally -- a legitimate use for the common, household liberal!

That deserves a BUMP!

[genefromjersey]

I had read about the use of maggots in the Civil War.

It’s a treatment that might have benefitted my late wife-a bit, anyway. She developed severe foot infections, that looked like dry gangrene,after a long period of being on glucose. There seemed to be no treatment, and, for a while, our doctor was worried it might progress to gas gangrene-which is pretty much untreatable.

We applied an antibiotic salve,which didn’t seem to help. After a while, the necrotized portions just dried up and fell off, but the skin underneath didn’t look very good.

[grey_whiskers]

Self- *PING* about post 29 for later reading.

Thanks for the links, neverdem.

Cheers!

[mamelukesabre]

In the old days, all you did was go out to the outhouse, and take off your bandage, let the flys land on the gangrene for awhile, and then put the bandage back on. When you start to feel itching in the wound, it’s time to take the bandage off and let the maggots fall off.

[Moonman62]

That would require general anesthesia for penis reattachments.

[DieHard the Hunter]

Wow, great thread!

I remember when the medical profession used to sneer at all these “old fashioned” remedies: penicillin fixed everything that vitamin C wouldn’t fix, supposedly.

Lots of carbohydrates were good/bad/good/bad for you. All cholesterol was bad for you. Definitely.

Mark my words: in 100 years or probably much less the medical profession will find that smoking was good for treating the #1 and #2 killers in their modern society: STRESS and DEPRESSION. And that Obesity is actually a GOOD THING, as is Hi Blood Pressure.

Trust the “experts” — shyeah, right.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

If you’re in to have your willy reattached, I don’t think you’re going to be in much condition to complain about your treatment.

I suggest instead of worrying about leeches, you contemplate whatever you did to get yourself shortened and endeavor to never EVER do it again.

[GOPJ]

Why not to go to the hospital:

Chapter 100

... of a 15 book set

[SunkenCiv]

Saw it in “Gladiator”. ;’

Peruvians Drink Frog Smoothies to Gain Potency
Fox News | May 04, 2007 | AP
Posted on 05/04/2007 10:42:34 AM EDT by RDTF
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1828367/posts

Whale Waste Is Extremely Valuable
(Used By Middle East Royal Family as Aphrodisiac)
Scientific American | 04.26.07 | Cynthia Graber
Posted on 05/05/2007 2:00:27 PM EDT by fight_truth_decay
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1828914/posts

Cow urine used to ‘purify’ school, pupils in India: reports
abcnews | 4-21-2007 | staff writer
Posted on 04/23/2007 10:44:12 AM EDT by bedolido
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1822051/posts

[SunkenCiv]

I guess “maggots” and “leeches” are no longer okay as nicknames for Moslems. Back to the drawing board.