25 May MRSA and Antibacterial Clays
In the race to protect society from infectious microbes, the bugs are outrunning us. The need for new therapeutic agents is acute, given the emergence of novel pathogens as well as old foes bearing heightened antibiotic resistance.
Shelley Haydel, a researcher at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute and associate professor in the School of Life Sciences, has a new approach to developing effective, topical antibacterial agents – one that draws on a naturally occurring substance recognized since antiquity for its medicinal properties: clay.
In research appearing in the journal PLOS ONE, Haydel and her graduate student, Caitlin Otto, lay out the case for clay, demonstrating that certain varieties of clay have the ability to aggressively kill a range of pathogens including E. coli and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) – a stubborn, highly contagious and dangerous pathogen that has lately been the scourge of many hospitals, and is a common cause of skin infections in the community. Their study further indicates that, rather than the physical particles of the clays, particular metal ions attached to the clay are likely responsible for its potent antibacterial properties.
Read more from this article by Richard Harth here: