The Volcanic Clay That'Kills 99pc of NHS Superbugs'

Oct 29, 06:59 PM

Current Headlines: By Ian Sparks

CLAY could provide a breakthrough in the fight against superbugs, scientists say.

Researchers testing dirt which originated in French volcanoes found it could kill up to 99 per cent of colonies of bugs such as MRSA and E coli within 24 hours.

Scientists believe agricur, which is found in the Massif Central mountain range, could lead to the development of a class of antibiotics to which superbugs have no resistance.

If human trials prove successful, it could save thousands of lives a year.

In laboratory experiments, the clay was found to wipe out bug colonies in a day. Over the same period, control samples of MRSA not treated with agricur grew 45-fold.

The clay also kills other deadly bacteria, including salmonella and a flesh-eating disease called buruli - a relative of leprosy which disfigures children across central and western Africa.

MRSA and other bacteria have developed resistance to conventional antibiotics, largely because patients stop using prescribed drugs when they begin to feel better rather than finishing their course of treatment.

This allows the hardiest bugs to survive and spread. And scientists searching for antibiotics to replace penicillin have until now had only limited success.

The healing properties of French green clays, mostly made of minerals called smectite and illite, were first discovered by French doctor Line Brunet de Course.

She used it to fight buruli at clinics in Ivory Coast and Guinea.

When she approached the World Health Organisation in 2002 with 50 case studies, the organisation described her work as 'impressive'. However, it denied her funding because of a lack of scientific evidence.

After de Course's death, her son Thierry looked for scientists willing to test agricur.

Dr Lynda Williams, of Arizona State University, who has specialised in the study of clay, agreed.

She and her colleague Dr Shelley Haydel will present the results of their research on agricur and other clays to the Geological Society of America's annual meeting in Denver today.

The scientists do not yet fully understand how agricur treats MRSA and other infections. It is thought more than one component is involved.

Dr Williams, a minerals expert, said: 'We have found several antibacterial clays that appear to transfer unidentified elements to the bacteria that impede their metabolic function.

'It is entirely possible that it is not one single element that is toxic to the bacteria but a combination of elements and chemical conditions that attack the bacteria from different angles so as to overwhelm their defence systems.' It may be that the clays worked through a physical rather than a biochemical process, meaning that bacteria could never develop resistance, she added.

Dr Haydel, a microbiologist, said: 'It's fascinating. Here we are bridging geology, microbiology, cell biology. A year ago, I would look at the clay and say, "Well, that's dirt".' In the UK, deaths from MRSA have risen from 100 a year in the early 1990s to more than 1,600 in 2005.

Pounds 1bn spent annually treating patients who catch hospital infections

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