Engineered spider silk thread could help combat infections among patients with diabetic foot ulcers and similar injuries.

It’s long been established that spider silk can actually help heal wounds of varying type and severity.

Some of the most recent research into the benefits of spider silk came from the University of Akron in Ohio. Back in 2012, a team from the polymer sciences department created a special synthetic thread that could help heal damaged tendons. Right around the same time, a group from Germany’s RWTH Aachen University had a similar breakthrough with silk, though their thread also had engineering uses in airplane construction and maintenance.

Now, yet another new development with spider silk has occurred courtesy of a team from the University of Nottingham in the U.K.



Super spider silk

As part of a new study published in the journal Advanced Materials, the Nottingham collective has created an antibiotic variety of spider silk thread. Previous forms of the spider thread are popular in the wound care industry because, among other features, the different types of thread are both durable and biocompatible.

This new thread, however, is different in that it makes use of a relatively new technique called click-chemistry. Here, the researchers are able to attach certain molecules, like antibiotics, directly to the thread. According to Sigma-Aldrich, click-chemistry works by making use of several key chemical reactions, which in turn help bond the molecules to the material in question (like spider silk thread). Through the use of click-chemistry, the Nottingham team believes they have a novel new tool to aid wound healing.

Speaking with The Science Explorer, lead author Neil Thomas explained that the silk thread has two primary advantages when it comes to wound care.

“There is the possibility of using the silk in advanced dressings for the treatment of slow-healing wounds such as diabetic ulcers,” he said. “Using our technique infection could be prevented over weeks or months by the controlled release of antibiotics. At the same time tissue regeneration is accelerated by silk fibers functioning as a temporary scaffold before being biodegraded.”

The antibiotic used for the threads is levofloxacin, which is one of the stronger broad-spectrum options currently available. According to a review published in the journal Drugs, levofloxacin has several key advantages, including fewer side effects and working against even drug-resistant strains like streptococcus pneumonia.

The antibiotic thread is only the beginning for the Nottingham group. Eventually, they’ll use click-chemistry to develop other thread type

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