Maggot Debridement Therapy and Its Important Components: Antimicrobial Agent Chymotrypsin and It's Protein Structure

Maggot Debridement Therapy and Its Important Components: Antimicrobial Agent Chymotrypsin and It's Protein Structure

Background:   Chronic wounds that do not heal are a major health problem worldwide. The colonization of the tissues with polymicrobial flora in all chronic wounds is the factor that retards the healing. Systemic and topical antibiotics or antiseptics are used to treat clinical infections in non-healing wounds. In recent studies, however, it has been stated that antibiotics do not support the desired outcome in wound healing. With the increase in antibiotic use, bacterial resistance problem arises in the treatment of bacterial colonization. There is an urgent need to support and define effective strategies in chronic wound therapies that do not respond to antibiotics. This situation causes the physicians to focus on different areas and to be interested in treatment modalities. Today, successful application of Maggot Debridement Treatment (MDT) is very interesting.n our study; The aim of this study was to isolate the chymotrypsin gene, which is effective in wound treatment, in the laboratory by using molecular methods Materials and Methods: The Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine Department of Medical Parasitology, genomic DNA was isolated from the second stage larvae from the L. sericata colony in which we maintain the life cycle. PCR was performed using primers specific to the L. sericata chymotrypsin gene region.Results: , After isolation of genomic DNA (gDNA) from L. sericata, Chymotrypsin gene region was amplified using originally designed primers with PCR.  PCR product of 455 bp was obtained. The in-silico analysis of amino acids encoding the protein of Chymotrypsin have shown that is approximately 25 kDa. Conclusions: The elimination of drug-resistant pathogens has an important role in wound treatment. Especially the second stage larvae of L. sericata release microorganisms by secreting antimicrobial enzymes. Therefore, L. sericata larvae are important in the treatment of infected wounds. Bacteria in chronic wounds are usually found in biofilm. These bacteria in biofilm are protected from antibiotics and immune system. Maggot secretions are effective against biofilms formed by bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Bacteria with biofilm degradation; antibiotics, immune system activities and worm action is becoming more sensitive. The L. sericata larvae debride the wound site and contribute to the deterioration of this biofilm with the secretion of chymotrypsin, one of the important defensin molecules. At the same time, chymotrypsin protein has important functions that accelerate wound healing and induce scar tissue formation. The treatment of chronic and non-healing wounds is complicated by various reasons, and we think that the experimental animals, which provide alternative mechanisms and the important mechanisms of these compounds, are extremely important.

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