Fungal flair
TAKING a cue from the traditional method of using moldy bread to treat wounds, scientists have developed dressings that employ fungi to provide the healing touch. Researchers have established that myceliurn (filaments) of fungi can be harnessed to enhance natural healing by promoting activities of cells to repair the damaged tissue (Biotechnology, Vol 13, No 2).
According to scientists at the British Textile Technology Group at Manchester, fungi like Phycomyces blakesleeanus can produce antibiotics such as patulin and possibly penicillin, which render them useful for antibiotic therapy to prevent and combat post-operative infection.
Further, materials derived from P blakesleeanus, Rhizopus oryzae, and Rhizomucor miehei show significant action in protecting a wound, keeping it clean and promoting growth of cells that repair the tissue.
The new dressings use fungal mycelia that contain 20-90 per cent of fibrous materials like chitin and other cell wall polysaccharides - a class or natural carbohydrates. Results so far indicate that these fibrous materials in dressings promote growth of fibroblasts - a blood protein that is essential for the normal coagulation of blood - that, in turn, synthesise molecules that heal the injured tissues.
These dressings become all the more significant when one realises the' short-comings of the existing methods of wound treatment. Injecting antibiotics into the circulatory system to deal with post-traumatic infections encounters drug resistance in organisms like Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Coupled to this is the problem of enormous burden on nursing services by chronic wounds that take months to heal. The new generation dressings provide an efficient answer to these problems.
Supported by the UK department of trade and industry, the ease and precision associated with the production of fungal filaments, and relatively inexpensive chemical processing, make the technology appealing for dressing manufacturing companies.