Irish researchers discover new way to kill hospital superbug

[Hazlitt]

This is great news, researchers have come up with a new way to kill off bacteria, including the hospital superbug MRSA. The new method wipes out 100 per cent of all bacteria in as little as thirty minutes!

No bacteria can withstand the treatment, which is based on the use of substances known as ionic liquids.
...
The liquid can be sprayed on to a surface where it will kill any existing bacteria, including MRSA and other so-called superbugs. It continues to destroy any bacteria that arrive subsequently provided the ionic liquid has not been wiped off, Dr Earle said.
...
Ionic liquids are also up to 250 times better at killing difficult to treat “biofilms”, the build-up of bacterial colonies that can protect themselves from most antibiotics.
...
Ionic liquids are chemically similar to common table salt, but are liquid at room temperature. They are also unusual because rather than forming stable molecules they break up to form fragments known as ions.

Bacteria exposed to them take up the ions into their cell walls, disrupting normal activity and quickly killing off the bacteria.

Irish researchers discover new way to kill hospital superbug - The Irish Times - Thu, Mar 26, 2009
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[stewiegriffin]

Apparently if you kill the 'Queen bug' It stops them reproducing .




Queen superbug , under a macroscope .

[Hazlitt]

hang on a second....that queen bug looks an awful lot like............. ah! ..... I see what you did there!
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[Seos]

hang on a second....that queen bug looks an awful lot like............. ah! ..... I see what you did there!
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Wait? What? What did he do? I don't get it? Hey look an invisible full stop... Why do you put invisible full stops at the end of your posts? [COLOR="White"]WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO HIDE!!!?[/COLOR]

[riven]

This is great news, researchers have come up with a new way to kill off bacteria, including the hospital superbug MRSA. The new method wipes out 100 per cent of all bacteria in as little as thirty minutes!



Irish researchers discover new way to kill hospital superbug - The Irish Times - Thu, Mar 26, 2009
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Ionic liquids are expensive and dangerous. yes yes salty water could be classed as an ionic liquid but so could aqueous HF. When you can make me a cheap and safe ionic liquid for this kind of activity I will give you the nobel prize.

[Hazlitt]

It's a menacing plan to take up all the politics.ie data capacity and bring this whole circus to a grinding halt. It's the equivalent of death by a thousand cuts, but death by a squidgyillion invisible fullstops.

[Hazlitt]

Ionic liquids are expensive and dangerous. yes yes salty water could be classed as an ionic liquid but so could aqueous HF. When you can make me a cheap and safe ionic liquid for this kind of activity I will give you the nobel prize.

I see. Well, hopefully the beginning of the process to get it mass-produced for a small cost and small retail price for many useful applications.

I've heard some horror MRSA stories though so delighted to know better methods are being developed all the time. Science, what a marvellous thing

[Seos]

Ionic liquids are expensive and dangerous. yes yes salty water could be classed as an ionic liquid but so could aqueous HF. When you can make me a cheap and safe ionic liquid for this kind of activity I will give you the nobel prize.

The liquid has low toxicity but has not yet been tested for use in human treatments.

No mention of cost, in the article. Hopefully it'll be usable at least, if not cheap.

It's a menacing plan to take up all the politics.ie data capacity and bring this whole circus to a grinding halt. It's the equivalent of death by a thousand cuts, but death by a squidgyillion invisible fullstops.

Noooooooooooooo... wait that's just making things worse, ehh No.

[Oppenheimer]

Marks and Spencer are marketing pyjamas impregnated with nano-silver that apparently does the job as well.

As for ionic liquids being dangerous, that is contradicted by a lot of research + there are tens of thousands of them at this point so to say all are dangerous is not accurate.

[riven]

That is true but rarely have I had more problems than with ionic liquids. They may be low toxicity but they can and will absorb. Ions (in this form) and blood are not good.

The low toxicity ones are generally abundant and somewhat cheap (if you can use that word) and not dangerous but not useful for bacteria killling I would suggest.

However 'One of the attractions of ionic liquids is the opportunity to tailor their physical, chemical, and biological properties by building specific features into the chemical structures of the positively-charged ions and/or the negatively-charged ions.'

This is where the many 10,000's of these liquids but very little practical reseach in the firld has been done. The number of well known ionic liquids numbers less than 300 (though I think the japanees have a better grasp). However making their properties different is very easy and often reversible.

The make cool colours though when put into films.