Nov. 19, 2007 -- Researchers looking for new chemical compounds to combat germs are finding them in a surprising source: worms.
For hundreds of thousands of years, worms have flourished in excrement and germ-filled conditions that people spend countless dollars and hours trying to wash off and avoid.
"Phylogenetically, earthworms are a very old group," Boris Byzov, who led one of the research teams, told Discovery News.
"They are presumably the most ancient soil dwellers and have been around in sediments of the Precambrian and Ordovician (over 500 million years ago)," added Byzov, a Faculty of Soil Science researcher in the Russian Federation's Department of Soil Biology.
Byzov and his colleagues dug up worms in cow manure-rich soils at Moscow Lomonosov State University. The researchers measured the amount of bacteria and fungi in both soil and "fresh excrement" from worms. Interestingly, the worm poo contained a different microorganism mixture, with significantly less fungi.
The scientists then took fluid from the worm's digestive tract and subjected it to a bacterial and fungi barrage. The tests indicate the earthworm gut environment acts as a filter, and even a fermenter, for at least some types of microorganisms.
"Earthworms selectively kill and then digest some bacteria and fungi," Byzov explained. "Other microorganisms can successfully pass the digestive tract with some populations multiplying in the posterior part of the gut."
He said this activity helps to keep soil microbial communities in balance. Worm poo even changes how soil absorbs water.
"(Earthworms) make soil more water resistant through their excretion of mucus-rich casts," Byzov said. "Consuming soil, they make big channels and burrows, which are then easily occupied by plant roots and small animals."
As these experiments were taking place, Beijing's China Agricultural University scientist Sun Zhenjun and his colleagues were making worm discoveries of their own.
Zhenjun knew that, for centuries, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners had included worms in their preparations. He describes the insect treatments as "cold" and "slightly salty," with purported claims of treating everything from herpes to cancer.
The Beijing team introduced cancerous cells, obtained from China-Japan Friendship Hospital, to worm tissues and fluids. They saw "significant" change, with many of the cancer cells dying.
Zhenjun told Discovery News that he and his colleagues then "accidentally" found that worm compounds, specifically some complex carbohydrates and protein components, "have antibacterial functions."
Like Byzov, he had his team mix all kinds of human-infecting bacteria, such as E. coli, staph, pneumonia and candida with the worm compounds. The worm goo easily killed each one off, including an extremely harmful bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is naturally resistant to penicillin and most other antibiotics.
Zhenjun and his colleagues are now trying to isolate the most powerful anti-cancer and antibacterial agents in worms, so that these might be synthesized for human use in future.
The findings from both teams have been accepted for publication in the European Journal of Soil Biology.
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