Maggots can heal!

Oct 22, 2007 (Taken from Straitstimes Interactive)

Maggots may be used to heal festering wounds
NTU lab testing larvae that can hasten healing, kill 'super bug'
By Tania Tan

IN THE heart of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a research lab raising maggots that may soon be used to treat festering wounds in patients here.

These microsurgeons, which 'treat as they eat', do their job by gobbling up dead tissue and producing infection-fighting secretions, said Associate Professor Daniel Lim, director of NTU's Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Engineering Cluster.

'It's double the benefit for wound healing,' he added.

The idea is not new.

Maggot medicine was tried and tested way back in the 1800s and is now used in hospitals in Britain, Germany and the United States.

Researchers in the lab here - a collaboration between NTU and home-grown life sciences company Origin Scientia - are looking into using the larvae of a local species of fly, Lucilia cuprina, also known as green bottle.

The six-month-old lab already has a stock of 4,000 flies, which are fed a mixture of milk powder and sugar, with a side of Vitamin B-12 enriched syrup.

After the flies mate and lay their eggs, the eggs are harvested and sterilised to ensure the hatched maggots are bacteria-free.

The larvae measure barely 2mm, but are equipped with a huge appetite for dead tissue, such as those in the wounds of diabetics, which do not heal readily, or burns victims.

Sandwiched between two pieces of gauze or other type of dressing, the maggots are left up to 48hours in a wound, after which they are treated as bio-hazard waste and discarded, said Prof Lim.

If the idea of maggots eating away at your flesh turns you queasy, consider the alternative: Left untreated, necrotic or dead tissue is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria or infection that can lead to gangrene, limb amputation and - in severe cases - death.

Prof Lim said no tests have been done on patients here yet, though clinical trials are expected to start as soon as next year.

Already, doctors at Tan Tock Seng Hospital's burns unit are watching the lab's progress with interest.

The deputy head and consultant at the hospital's department of orthopaedic surgery, Dr Ooi Lai Hock, said some patients would 'definitely welcome' the alternative therapy.

Prof Lim said that while adult flies are associated with dirt and disease, maggots produce anal and oral secretions that have been shown in studies to be capable of fighting off the bacterium called Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA).

Known as the 'super bug', MRSA has evolved to become resistant to many antibiotics.

As recently as last week, a teenager in the United States died from an MRSA infection.

Beyond treating wounds, the lab hopes to one day harness the maggots' bacteria-killing abilities for use in products such as creams and serums.

Prof Lim said: 'It's a very long-term goal, but the research journey starts now.'