Spider Silk: Research Reveals Cobweb's Role in Treating Wound; Scientists Attempt Detection of Antimicrobial Activity

New research recently suggested that spider silk may not be helpful, particularly in treating wounds, as most humans have been led to believe.

A Gizmodo report specified that researchers observed closely at different spiders' silk, although they could not find any antibacterial properties.

According to the researchers, their results "should bring throw into question past claims" of discovering bacteria-fighting spider silk and that antibiotic silk needs to be regarded as "nothing more than a myth."

Spider silk has long captivated both scientists and the public. A protein-based fiber, the sticky substance, is made by all identified spiders, although its functions differ considerably from one species to another.

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Spider Silk

Certainly, there's the classic web, although some spiders also depend on silk as a net to catch their victim. Some species are using it in their mating rituals. The tinier ones, on the other hand, are floating the air on their strands.

Other spiders will only eat the silk that has gone unused as a type of recycling. Given its adaptability, it is not surprising that humans from past to present have tried replicating the benefits of spider silk.

A theoretical attribute of silk is its antibacterial activity, which piqued the Denmark-based Aarhus University researchers' interest.

Essentially, social spiders live in close-knit communities with small genetic diversity, making them ripe for fast-transmitting outbreaks of infectious diseases.

Nonetheless, if silk functions as an antibiotic barrier of sorts, researchers of the study published in iScience theorized that might aid in the explanation of the reason such spiders are surviving as well as they're doing.

Detecting Antimicrobial Activity

In this study, the researchers said they were unable to detect social spider silk's antimicrobial activity, and thus made them curious about the reasons other studies were able to identify antimicrobial activity in spider silk.

The study authors then began to scrutinize the papers, including the one published in BMC Research Notes in 2012, that reported antimicrobial activity in every detail, and turned out to be aware of the methodological inadequacies, explained senior study author Aarhus evolutionary biologist Trine Bilde.

For one, there just has not been much research on this particular subject, with a lot of claims amounting to little more than anecdotal evidence.

Furthermore, among the few papers showing some effect, the research team identified some probable fatal flaws.

Some research, for example, apparently did not try to account for the bacterial contamination of specimens, which could have impacted the growth of other microbes scientists were examining.

Many did not appear to try regulating their antibacterial properties, like ethyl acetate, for the sample.

Improved Wound Dressings in the Future

Bilde noted that possibly too, the silk is not useless against microbes. Since silk is typically used to shield spider eggs, an easy victim for some microbes and fungi, it may have yet properties functioning as a physical barrier against worrying microbes.

Some studies, like the one mentioned in Science News, have suggested that this could explain further why silk is staying "rot-free" for an extended period. Other researchers have developed synthetic silk that can be infused with existing antibiotics, hoping that they could develop improved dressings for wounds one day.

Bilde also explained spider silk has unique properties. There are many other uses that remain unknown and worth studying, like the silk's strength and elasticity, properties that would be helpful for the development of further applied applications.

Related information about how spider silk is used as first aid against wounds is shown on Wild Kiwi's YouTube video below: