Maggot secretions could provide drug that can kill 12 strains of deadly superbug MRSA



A liquid produced by green bottle larvae has been shown to kill MRSA, C difficile and the E coli food poisoning bug in lab tests

Green bottle maggots could provide doctors with a powerful new drug against MRSA, a study has found.

Scientists have turned a brown sticky liquid produced by the larvae into an antibiotic capable of killing 12 different strains of the deadly superbug.



The drug, named Seraticin, can also combat the C difficile stomach bug, lab tests show.

If trials on patients prove successful, the drug could give doctors a much-needed extra weapon in the fight against the infections which are becoming more and more resistant to treatment.

Between them, superbugs kill or hasten the death of more than 8,000 Britons a year and MRSA alone costs the NHS an estimated £1billion annually.

The wound-cleaning power of maggots has been known for centuries and they are regularly put to work in some hospital wards where they eat their way through diseased tissue.

But bottling their bug-busting powers - by synthesising the compound - would allow their widespread use.

The Swansea University scientists have isolated and purified a bug-killing compound produced by green bottle larvae as they munch through flesh.

Green bottle maggots were chosen because, unlike the larvae of some other flies, they do not harm healthy flesh.

In lab tests, the drug zapped MRSA, C difficile and the E coli food poisoning bug.

Dr Yolande Harley, of Action Medical Research, which funded the work, said: 'The discovery of a potential new antibiotic is an exciting advance.

'It could mean a possible new novel treatment for people with chronic wounds that are infected with MRSA or other bugs.

'By developing the pure antibiotic into a cream, it could reduce the contact patients need to have with live maggots to heal wounds.

'It could also offer a potential treatment, such as an injection or pill, for internal infections such as C difficile.'

Professor Norman Ratcliffe, the lead researcher, said there was a desperate need for new antibiotics.

'Who knows what the next superbug will be?' he said. 'And we are running out of antibiotics to treat them with.'

If trials on humans are successful, the drug could help doctors fight several deadly infections. It is thought the treatment is eight years away from the market.

Professor Ratcliffe said: 'It takes approximately 20 mugs of maggots to yield just one drop of purified Seraticin at present.

'The next stage will be to confirm its exact identity in order for us to produce it chemically at a larger scale.'

Dr Alun Morgan, of ZooBiotic, a firm that breeds maggots under sterile conditions, said: 'Maggots are great little multi-taskers.

'They produce enzymes that clean wounds, they make a wound more alkaline which may slow bacterial growth and they produce a range of antibacterial chemicals that stop the bacteria growing.'

The Swansea scientists are not the only ones to harness nature in the fight against MRSA - U.S. researchers have shown proteins found in alligator blood are capable of killing a wide range of bacteria.