Spider silk's supposed 'healing properties' might have no basis in
science

Date:
October 5, 2021
Source:
Cell Press
Summary:
As far back as ancient Rome, spider silk has been used as a remedy
to treat everything from skin lesions to warts. In the past,
doctors have covered open wounds in cobwebs or advised patients
to place cocoons on infected teeth. In modern times, however, the
literature contains conflicting reports of whether or not spider
silk has antimicrobial properties. Researchers have now revisited
these old experiments and debunk the myth of antibiotic spider silk.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
As far back as ancient Rome, spider silk has been used as a remedy to
treat everything from skin lesions to warts. In the past, doctors have
covered open wounds in cobwebs or advised patients to place cocoons
on infected teeth. In modern times, however, the literature contains conflicting reports of whether or not spider silk has antimicrobial
properties. In the journal iScience on October 5th, researchers revisit
these old experiments and debunk the myth of antibiotic spider silk.


========================================================================== "Spider silk has always been admired and almost has a mythical
status," says senior author Trine Bilde, a professor of biology at
Aarhus University. "It's one of these myths that seems to have become 'established' by 'belief' and not by strong empirical support." Since the antimicrobial properties of spider silk were first reported, researchers
have proposed ways in which spiders might benefit. In the case of social spiders living in large groups, it's been thought that antibiotic silk
might help prevent the spread of infection between individuals. These
spiders have weakened immune systems from inbreeding, so they are
especially vulnerable to infection.

Early in their research, Bilde and her research group grew doubtful of
the validity of what they had read in the literature. "We were unable
to detect antimicrobial activity of social spider silk, regardless of
method or microbe, and this made us curious about why other studies were
able to," she says. "We then started scrutinizing the papers reporting antimicrobial activity in fine detail and became aware of methodological shortcomings." The researchers identified two categories of shortcomings
in the already published literature: (1) risk for bacterial contamination,
and (2) inadequate control for the solvent used to extract the spider
silk. The team showed that previous reports were likely compromised,
for example by having measured the effect of the solvent used to extract
the spider silk instead of the spider silk itself. Solvents like acetone
or ethyl acetate can have strong antimicrobial effects on their own.

Overall, Bilde's team examined silk from seven different spider species by using improved experimental methods and found no signs of antimicrobial activity. Although this does not rule out antimicrobial activity for all species of spiders, it brings into doubt all previous reported accounts.

"Rather than assuming that spider silk is antimicrobial, we should now
assume that it isn't," says Bilde. "We can still test the idea in new
species and with new organisms, but with a more cautious starting point." Spiders use their silk to protect their eggs, which offer high nutritional content to microbes. Bilde proposes that instead of warding off microbial threats with intrinsic antimicrobial activity, the silk casing around
the eggs might function only as a physical barrier.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Cell_Press. Note: Content may be
edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Simon Fruergaard, Marie Braad Lund, Andreas Schramm, Thomas
Vosegaard,
Trine Bilde. The myth of antibiotic spider silk. iScience, 2021
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103125 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211005124708.htm

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