Fruergaard Simon, Lund Marie Braad, Schramm Andreas, Vosegaard Thomas, Bilde Trine
Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
iScience. 2021 Oct 5;24(10):103125. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103125. eCollection 2021 Oct 22.
Spider silk is frequently attributed antimicrobial properties. This notion is based on studies reporting antimicrobial activity (AMA) of spider silk; however, close inspection of these studies reveals that the evidence is conflicting, and at best anecdotal. We performed a systematic study of antimicrobial properties of different silk types from seven species across the spider phylogeny. We found no evidence of AMA of silk in direct contact and disc diffusion assays against Gram-negative and , and the Gram-positive . Furthermore, staining experiments and fluorescence microscopy showed the presence of live bacteria on silk surfaces indicating no antimicrobial effect on direct contact. A critical evaluation of the literature reveals that published tests of AMA are scarce and that all the studies claiming positive results are compromised by methodological shortcomings. Our analysis demonstrates that the common notion that spider silk is antimicrobial is not supported by empirical data.
蜘蛛丝常被认为具有抗菌特性。这一观点基于一些报告蜘蛛丝具有抗菌活性（AMA）的研究；然而，仔细审视这些研究就会发现，证据相互矛盾，充其量只是传闻。我们对蜘蛛系统发育中七个物种的不同丝类型的抗菌特性进行了系统研究。在针对革兰氏阴性菌和革兰氏阳性菌的直接接触和纸片扩散试验中，我们没有发现丝具有AMA的证据。此外，染色实验和荧光显微镜检查显示丝表面存在活细菌，表明直接接触时没有抗菌作用。对文献的批判性评估表明，已发表的AMA测试很少，所有声称有阳性结果的研究都存在方法学缺陷。我们的分析表明，蜘蛛丝具有抗菌性这一普遍观点没有得到实证数据的支持。
