A new compound made from tree resin kills almost 100% of drug-resistant bacteria without harming healthy tissue, laboratory studies suggest.
Made into a film, this nanocellulose could be used as a wound dressing or as a protective surface on medical implants.
Researchers have been surprised by its efficacy in the studies so far. "It was like a wonder," Ghada Hassan, a doctoral student in pharmacy at the University of Helsinki in Finland, told Medscape Medical News. She and her colleagues published their findings in Applied Bio Materials .
Bacteria are able to evolve resistance to new antibiotics sometimes within only a few years. Infection by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a particular problem in pressure ulcers and wounds from prosthetic, plastic, and reconstructive surgery.
In search of a medicine that could retain its efficacy against these difficult-to-treat bacterial strains, Hassan noticed in Finnish pharmacies a traditional treatment for small wounds made from the resin of conifers. References to resin as a wound dressing date back 500 years in Finland, and there are many favorable anecdotal reports, she said.
Trees produce the resin when injured to protect themselves from infection. As the resin has maintained its effectiveness for millions of years, Hassan reasoned that bacteria could not easily evolve resistance to it.
