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The myth of antibiotic spider silk

Spider silk is frequently attributed antimicrobial properties. This notion is based on studies reporting antimicrobial activity (AMA) of spider silk; however, close inspection of these studies reveals that the evidence is conflicting, and at best anecdotal. We performed a systematic study of antimic...

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Autores principales: Fruergaard, Simon, Lund, Marie Braad, Schramm, Andreas, Vosegaard, Thomas, Bilde, Trine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8560547/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34755083
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103125
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author Fruergaard, Simon
Lund, Marie Braad
Schramm, Andreas
Vosegaard, Thomas
Bilde, Trine
author_facet Fruergaard, Simon
Lund, Marie Braad
Schramm, Andreas
Vosegaard, Thomas
Bilde, Trine
author_sort Fruergaard, Simon
collection PubMed
description Spider silk is frequently attributed antimicrobial properties. This notion is based on studies reporting antimicrobial activity (AMA) of spider silk; however, close inspection of these studies reveals that the evidence is conflicting, and at best anecdotal. We performed a systematic study of antimicrobial properties of different silk types from seven species across the spider phylogeny. We found no evidence of AMA of silk in direct contact and disc diffusion assays against Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas putida, and the Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis. Furthermore, staining experiments and fluorescence microscopy showed the presence of live bacteria on silk surfaces indicating no antimicrobial effect on direct contact. A critical evaluation of the literature reveals that published tests of AMA are scarce and that all the studies claiming positive results are compromised by methodological shortcomings. Our analysis demonstrates that the common notion that spider silk is antimicrobial is not supported by empirical data.
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spelling pubmed-85605472021-11-08 The myth of antibiotic spider silk Fruergaard, Simon Lund, Marie Braad Schramm, Andreas Vosegaard, Thomas Bilde, Trine iScience Article Spider silk is frequently attributed antimicrobial properties. This notion is based on studies reporting antimicrobial activity (AMA) of spider silk; however, close inspection of these studies reveals that the evidence is conflicting, and at best anecdotal. We performed a systematic study of antimicrobial properties of different silk types from seven species across the spider phylogeny. We found no evidence of AMA of silk in direct contact and disc diffusion assays against Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas putida, and the Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis. Furthermore, staining experiments and fluorescence microscopy showed the presence of live bacteria on silk surfaces indicating no antimicrobial effect on direct contact. A critical evaluation of the literature reveals that published tests of AMA are scarce and that all the studies claiming positive results are compromised by methodological shortcomings. Our analysis demonstrates that the common notion that spider silk is antimicrobial is not supported by empirical data. Elsevier 2021-10-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8560547/ /pubmed/34755083 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103125 Text en © 2021 The Authors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Fruergaard, Simon
Lund, Marie Braad
Schramm, Andreas
Vosegaard, Thomas
Bilde, Trine
The myth of antibiotic spider silk
title The myth of antibiotic spider silk
title_full The myth of antibiotic spider silk
title_fullStr The myth of antibiotic spider silk
title_full_unstemmed The myth of antibiotic spider silk
title_short The myth of antibiotic spider silk
title_sort myth of antibiotic spider silk
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8560547/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34755083
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103125
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