Lisa Querry

   Usually when one hears the word maggot we don’t associate it with anything good or interesting, but for once maggots are good or so some think!  These slimy creatures have been demonstrated to do excellent things for wound healing.  Maggot debridement therapy is the use of live larvae to go into wounds and clean out the dead tissue so they can heal much faster.  As gross as this may seem it is actually very beneficial for bad wounds, some have been using this method dating back to before written history!

In the United States medical maggots are regulated by the food and drug administration for medical use only.  This process takes two to three days of the maggots being inside of a wound covered with special dressing.  The maggots natural instinct is to migrate away from clean tissue so it goes and gets rid of all of the bad.  Cleaning throughout the wound, these maggots promote healthy tissue growth.

The use of Maggot therapy is still going strong today; in 2011 approximately 50,000 wounds were being treated with this process. Although it may seem scary, it is much more efficient then any antibiotic or topical treatment for a wound.  These can be most beneficial for people who have chronic wounds such as pressure ulcers, neuropathic foot ulcers, and non-healing traumatic or post surgical wounds.  So before you see the word maggot and get utterly repulsed, think about the benefits that you could reap from this larva and how it could help if you had a serious wound!

“Medical Maggots™ (maggot Therapy, Maggot Debridement Therapy, MDT, Biotherapy, Biosurgery, Biodebridement, Larval Therapy).” Welcome. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2013.

ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2013.

Proteins putting up a fight!

  Cancer has become more than a disease in today’s world.  It has become the life taker of innocent people all over the world.  Something has been thrown in that may be a sudden game changer for this life taker.  Researchers have been looking at a group of proteins used in the process of mitosis that can possibly kill cancerous cells; the only predicament is learning how exactly to control them!

  The Journal of Cell Biology published an article explaining this group of proteins and what exactly happens in the process.  This protein, TACC3, forms inter-microtubule links that stabilize the K-fibers used in mitosis.  In mitosis if cells don’t divide equally it can lead to far too many cells and it puts a higher risk in place for more cancerous cells.  When other proteins work with TACC3 it makes this worse, but researches have found that when TACC3 is removed it kills these bad cells.  This killing of a cell isn’t bad because it shuts down mitosis in cells that are no longer dividing.  They have found this to be an important step in getting rid of cancerous cells.

Although this method isn’t a guarantee treatment for cancer, neither are most of the current treatments.  By finding ways to quickly remove these proteins, it is a step in the right direction to finding a cure.  This is important to almost everyone.  Further research will show the overflow of benefits for getting rid of TACC3, which will ultimately result in proteins being the hero of killing the destroyer!

Works Cited

“TACC3 Gene.” – GeneCards. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2013.

University of Warwick. “Team of proteins could have implications for fight against cancer.”ScienceDaily, 7 Aug. 2013. Web. 13 Sep. 2013.