Cure for MRSA superbug a step nearer
Original article in Scotsman.com News by Ian Johnston, 23 May 2005.
A CURE for the deadliest strains of MRSA superbug is being developed by a Scots scientist from a plant used in soap and shampoo.
Dr Valerie Ferro, an immunologist at Strathclyde University, is working to identify a chemical compound in the aloe vera plant which kills bacteria that have become resistant to all existing antibiotics.
MRSA has caused the deaths of thousands of people a year and closed hospital wards where poor hygiene has allowed it to spread. Comedian Rikki Fulton, who died from MRSA, and singer Edwyn Collins, have been recent high- profile victims.
Recent studies have shown bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics and an "arms race" has broken out as scientists try to stay one step ahead.
Dr Ferro became interested in aloe vera after her husband, a nurse who had become interested in complementary medicine, suggested she should take it to control hay fever that caused asthma.
After regularly taking an extract from the plant as a drink she was cured of the condition - from which she had suffered since the age of ten - and decided to carry out some research into its properties.
"I had some students doing their honours projects and what they started to look at was different kinds of things like shigella, which causes diarrhoea, and ecoli," Dr Ferro said.
"They started to use concentrated aloe vera on bacteria and found the bacteria started to die. It was highly effective.
"Then I thought if it works on intestinal bacteria, it may work on things like MRSA."
She tried out the aloe vera - sent over in powdered form from America - on isolates of different kinds of MRSA.
"We had a look at those and it worked on them as well, including the ones that are 'all-drug resistant' - the ones which multi-antibiotics don't kill," said Dr Ferro.
"This is one thing nobody has really looked at before. So for us it was exciting - it was the 'eureka' moment if you like. "
She is now working - with funding from Glasgow-based charity Tenovus - on turning the plant extract into an antibiotic drug that can be given to patients.
Resources
National Health Service Direct - www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk
Asthma UK - www.asthma.org.uk
MRSA Support - www.mrsasupport.co.uk
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3 comments:
The Russian culture has used aloe vera for decades for MSRA. I'm not sure why it's such a new breakthrough here.
It is definitely new to Americans. Also, one thing that people don't think about when dealing with this horrible bug is a skin cleanser. I had several outbreaks of MRSA and was on and off antibiotics but I finally cried to a NP and she had me do a body cleanse with some really powerful soap. It would decrease as a problem, I believe, if the protocol included a body cleanse along with antibiotics. MRSA is just going to keep mutating and a decrease in antibiotic use would be helpful.
Hi,Not exactly i mean not confirm aloe vera sure MRSA.i didn't know about MRSA.:(
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