Scientists find dirty way to kill bacteria

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Alarming headlines about the perils of "flesh-eating bacteria" and multi-drug resistant germs are becoming more frequent. Stories about staph infections dominated news coverage last week beating out the war in Iraq and the 2008 campaign, according to the Pew Research Center.

But here's the real dirt on such heinous bugs: Clay. Green French clay, to be specific.

Researchers at Arizona State University said yesterday that this mineral-laden stuff has the power to kill off malevolent bacteria that cause a variety of human ills — a notion previously confined to folk medicine.

The research team — backed with a $440,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health — has shown in lab tests that the clay could kill off Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), penicillin-resistant S.aureus (PRSA), pathogenic Escherichia coli (E.coli) and Mycobacterium ulcerans, a germ related to leprosy and tuberculosis that causes the flesh-eating disease Buruli ulcer.

"We are optimistic. The method has not killed bacteria completely, like at 100 percent, but it has significantly reduced it," said microbiologist Shelley Haydel, as assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences.

There's plenty of historic and anecdotal evidence touting the curative qualities of clay, some dating back thousands of years. As wonder drugs lose their potency, researchers are taking a hard look at these old-fashioned remedies.

"Years ago, I would never have thought I'd be researching such things, but I saw evidence in 2002 that a daily application of this clay was healing African children with Buruli ulcer," Ms. Haydel said. "I became convinced we should broaden our horizons in the search for antibacterials."

Lynda Williams, a geochemist and associate professor in Arizona State's School of Earth and Space Exploration, is coordinating two more teams of researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the U.S. Geological Survey.

"We're beginning to generate the first scientific evidence of why some minerals might kill bacterial organisms and others might not," she said.

MRSA has become particularly worrisome. More than 368,000 people are hospitalized a year for MRSA-related infections; the numbers of hospital stays has tripled since 2000, according to new data released Tuesday by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The research collective hopes to determine whether clay minerals suffocate, starve or disrupt bacteria — or even jump-start the human immune system. They're using such advanced investigative methods as ion imaging, secondary mass spectrometry and atomic force microscopy, Ms. Williams said.

The pair will present their findings on Monday before the Geological Society of America. They will not be alone in lauding clay, though. A second group will present evidence that the earthy substance — white German clay this time — can treat Asian cholera, diphtheria, gangrene, skin ulcers and eczema.