A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds • Hacker News Board

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#31

Post by Archipelagia » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 7:59 AM UTC

jononomo wrote: post #17

Archipelagia wrote: post #11

Here's an interesting part that's buried by the end: >Another area of research focuses on maggots’ wound-healing properties. “Clinical and anecdotal evidence suggested that maggots improve or accelerate and stimulate a wound to heal,” says Nigam. “We were really interested in why this could be possible when that’s of no evolutionary interest to the maggot at all. We’ve discovered that it’s more than likely an inadver…

Just another example of evolution being taken for granted. As far as I can tell the theory doesn’t even explain the origin of species, let alone the wound-healing properties of maggots.

Except your concern is addressed even in the part that I quoted:

"The growth factors [hormones] that are produced have a very similar structure to the human molecules and that is how perhaps by accident the human wound is stimulated to heal faster."

No idea how you got from that to "evolution can't even explain the origin of species", but it seems to me you're not exactly looking for truth here.

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#32

Post by skirt8193 » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 10:36 AM UTC

ashwagary wrote: post #27

__blockcipher__ wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC the maggots need to directly eat the dead tissue, so they are basically directly on the wound. The maggots themselves are covered with a dressing so you can't see them, but my understanding is they can be somewhat felt. On the "bright side", a lot of the times maggot dressings are used for chronically unhealing diabetic foot ulcers, and those wounds often have little sensation due to diabetic neuropathy and othe…

>apparently consume the dead tissue by liquefying it with enzymes first and then "drinking it" Not my area of expertise but I wonder why they cant just extract or synthetically produce this enzyme for topical application and whick the liquified tissue with guaze. Not a fan of maggots.

>Not my area of expertise but I wonder why they cant just extract or synthetically produce this enzyme for topical application and whick the liquified tissue with guaze.

It's in the works, according to the article. They're hoping for oral application too

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#33

Post by glfharris » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 10:43 AM UTC

jhoechtl wrote: post #19

glfharris wrote: post #15

I've prescribed these for some patients. Always funny when they arrive in little sachets to the wards, and sometimes takes a little bit of explaining just what we're recommending!

What's your profession? And where is such a treatment accepted?

I'm a doctor in the UK. We used them for vascular patients with poor wound healing/ulcers.

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#34

Post by perilunar » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 11:20 AM UTC

It's not mentioned in the article, but it is worth noting many species of flies/maggots do eat live flesh — only some species eat only dead or necrotic flesh.

There are some quite disgusting parasites out there:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myiasis

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#35

Post by bayouborne » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 12:08 PM UTC

__blockcipher__ wrote: post #22

unsupp0rted wrote: post #6

I wonder if this would have any effect on saving/healing the skin of burn victims

The best method for healing burn wounds (also cuts, abrasions, lacerations, and the like) is outlined in these slides: https://www.emilio-moriguchi.or.jp/disease/doc/moist_eng.pdf ^ Seriously these slides are incredible, check them out! In particular slide 42 shows the result of almost an entire finger tip being regenerated near perfectly. When I first saw the slides my jaw dropped, it seems like the type of thing th…

I found those slides fascinating as well. A burn scar for a young person person seems particularly debilitating. I think this approach is getting traction elsewhere too using fish skin in place of Saranwrap. i.e. "..mixed dermal burn wounds reports a total reepithelialization time of 17 days after Nile Tilapia AFS grafting"

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9323726/#:~:tex....

Re: A Welsh firm breeding maggots to heal wounds

#36

Post by jhoechtl » Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 4:51 PM UTC

glfharris wrote: post #33

jhoechtl wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your profession? And where is such a treatment accepted?

I'm a doctor in the UK. We used them for vascular patients with poor wound healing/ulcers.

Wow, I was totally unaware this method is used in developed western medicine.