Could bugs help tackle superbugs?

MAGGOTS are enough to make anyone's skin crawl.

Just ask film-goers who were left squirming in their seats at the sight of Hollywood star Russell Crowe's wounds being treated with live larva in the blockbuster Gladiator.

But they did the trick, and now the ancient remedy of maggot therapy is seeing a revival.

Now Swansea University-based scientists say they have uncovered a new type of antibiotic in maggot secretions, which will help to tackle superbugs.

It can be used in the fight against 12 different strains of MRSA, along with E. coli and C. difficile.

But Ros Thomas, the deputy head of the podiatry service, in Morriston Hospital, said the advantages of maggots in helping with wound healing was unearthed as far back as Roman times.

She said: "We have been using larva therapy for the past 10 years in Morriston and Singleton, but mostly in Morriston.

"It's always been used for wound healing.

"Even in Roman times maggots were used.

"Soldiers were left to die on the battlefields and the flies invaded their dirty wounds and maggots hatched out and cleaned them up.

"They had a better survival rate than the soldiers who went to the medical tent.

"When Russell Crowe was injured in the film Gladiator, and had maggots put on his shoulder, he tried to brush them off until he was told they would do him good."

She added: "With the infection of the bone, the maggots can go into an area and clean it out completely.

"They only eat out all the dead tissue and not the live tissue — it's amazing."

Medicinal maggots are relied on to clean wounds by dissolving dead tissue and to disinfect them by killing bacteria, and help with proper healing.

But that form of treatment fell out of favour in the 1940s, following the revolution of medical care through the discovery of antibiotics which dramatically cut illness and death from infectious diseases.

The deputy head of the podiatry service, who has been based at Morriston Hospital for the past 12 years, said: "The use of the 1940s with development of antibiotics, a revival was started back in the 1980s.

"Somebody in the US started using maggots for pressure ulcers and found they cleaned up wounds better than antibiotics.

"In 1995 Bridgend-based ZooBiotic started to produce maggots in small quantities for healthcare.

"When patients are told that maggots are the best way to clean their wound, some are a bit reluctant but others want the treatment to help it heal more quickly."

She added: "Most people say yes to the treatment, but we have had one or two who say they are going to have to think about it.

"It's their body and they have to decide if they want this treatment. We haven't had anybody point blank refuse."

Ms Thomas said the treatment had a crucial role to play in the case of diabetes patients, as the quick treatment of a wound could be key in preventing a patient from losing a limb.

She said the form of treatment was so cost effective that it would help to save NHS cash.

"Maggot therapy is quite cost effective as this can be done as an outpatient case and the patient comes back two days later and their wound has a good clean out," she added.

"It saves a hospital bed and having to go into theatre and have a surgeon cut away diseased tissue.

"So it's a great cost saving."

The Morriston Hospital-based podiatrist said it was in early 2000 that it was discovered maggots could help to clean away MRSA.

"I think it's great that the project for producing larva is starting in Wales and is part of Abertawe Bro Morgannwag NHS University Trust, and was attached to the Princess of Wales Hospital, in Bridgend," she added.

"To have Swansea University researching into it is great, as it's a natural antibiotic rather than a synthetic antibiotic.

"Maybe the larva will produce saliva to adapt to stop the bugs which were resistant.

"Old-fashioned treatment is coming back now, if it's going to benefit patients, it's going to benefit the NHS."

Research, being carried out at Swansea University is being funded by leading charity Action Medical Research, with support from the Rosetrees Trust.

The antibiotic, named Seraticin, is derived from the maggot secretions of the common green bottle fly (Lucilia sericata) and scientists hope to develop it into an injection, pill or ointment to tackle superbugs. Scientists are now hoping to turn it into a treatment which can be injected, swallowed as a pill or used as an ointment.

MRSA infections can lead to patient suffering, amputations and death. It also costs the NHS around £1 billion.

Between 2002 and 2006, 6,201 deaths in England and Wales involved MRSA, while 15,683 deaths in England and Wales involved C. difficile.

Scientists are urgently searching for a solution following the rapid rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Professor Norman Ratcliffe, a principal researcher on the project at Swansea University, said: "It has been a huge team effort to get to this level and I am delighted with our progress, however there is more to do if we are to realise the maximum benefits from this discovery.

"It takes approximately 20 mugs of maggots to yield just one drop of purified Seraticin at present.

"Thus, the next stage will be to confirm its exact identity using mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance analyses in order for us to produce this chemically on a larger scale."