Researchers Bust Antibacterial Spider Silk Myth

Researchers Bust Antibacterial Spider Silk Myth

In their study published Tuesday, researchers Simon Fruergaard, Marie Braad Lund, Andreas Schramm, Thomas Vosegaard, and Trine Bilde report having looked for AMA across seven types of spider silk, accounting for differences within the spider phylogeny. They tested for antimicrobial effects against Escherichia coli (better known as E. coli), Pseudomonas putida (sometimes associated with skin infections), and Bacillus subtilis (a benign form of bacteria that doesn’t actually harm humans or animals). Using direct contact assays (in which untreated silk is tested against antibiotic susceptibility) and disc diffusion assays (in which silk extracts are tested against the same), the team was able to conclude that all three types of bacteria were unthreatened by the silk.

“We were unable to detect the antimicrobial activity of social spider silk, and this made us curious about why other studies were able to detect antimicrobial activity in spider silk. We then started scrutinizing the papers reporting antimicrobial activity in every detail, and became aware of methodological shortcomings,” Tilde said to Gizmodo about the research. A more realistic application of “spider silk” on wounds would involve a spider-inspired synthetic silk developed in the UK a few years back. The synthetic material may someday be used to deliver drugs and close wounds with less risk of infection.

Researchers Bust Antibacterial Spider Silk Myth

Spider silk is still incredibly resilient, though. “Spider silk is renowned for its extraordinary physical properties such as high tensile strength and flexibility,” the study reads. “Silk is used as an anchor for rapid escape, a snare for prey capture, to immobilize cannibalistic mates, to make egg cases for protection . . . and even in silk diving bells that facilitate underwater life.” Based on the silk’s wide range of uses and overall durability, it made sense to the researchers at first that it may also protect itself by way of killing off bacteria. Unfortunately, that just isn’t the case.

Continue reading

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Is Leaking into Space
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Is Leaking into Space

NASA reports the probe grabbed so much regolith from the asteroid that it's leaking out of the collector. The team is now working to determine how best to keep the precious cargo from escaping.

MSI’s Nvidia RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio Review: 2080 Ti Performance, Pascal Pricing
MSI’s Nvidia RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio Review: 2080 Ti Performance, Pascal Pricing

Nvidia's new RTX 3070 is a fabulous GPU at a good price, and the MSI RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio shows it off well.

Astronomers Spot Earth-Sized Rogue Planet Wandering the Galaxy
Astronomers Spot Earth-Sized Rogue Planet Wandering the Galaxy

Astronomers have identified more than 4,000 exoplanets orbiting other stars but just a few "rogue planets" wandering the galaxy without a star to call home. A new study claims to have spotted one of these worlds, and it may be a small, rocky world like Earth.

RISC-V Tiptoes Towards Mainstream With SiFive Dev Board, High-Performance CPU
RISC-V Tiptoes Towards Mainstream With SiFive Dev Board, High-Performance CPU

RISC V continues to make inroads across the market, this time with a cheaper and more fully-featured test motherboard.