Scientists believe that a natural glue secreted by a sea creature called the sandcastle worm could pave the way for a new medical adhesive to help repair broken or shattered bones.Around 70,000 hip fractures, 120,000 spinal fractures and 50,000 broken wrists occur each year in Britain as a result of the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis, which is common among older people.The disease means that bones are more likely to break, even after a simple fall, and the repair process among elderly people can be prolonged.

Scientists first investigated the possibility of natural adhesives in the 1980s, when they started studying a natural glue from mussels.Since then, no natural adhesive has made it into clinical use, but researchers at the University of Utah hope to change that with their latest advance.

The team have now copied a natural substance secreted by Phragmatopoma californica, a worm that uses glue to build its home out of sand and broken shells.Their creation is non-toxic to cells and is at least as strong as superglue.Bioengineer Dr Russell Stewart, who reported on the team’s progress at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, said that the synthetic glue is based on an “ideal but so far unexploited platform for making injectable adhesives”.
“We are very optimistic about this synthetic glue,” he revealed.

“Biocompatibility is one of the major challenges of creating an adhesive like this. Anytime you put something synthetic into the body, there’s a chance the body will respond to it and damage the surrounding tissue. That’s something we will monitor, but we’ve seen no indication right now that it will be a problem.”

Scientists funded by the Arthritis Research Campaign are looking at a distant relative of the sandcastle worm in the hopes that a substance secreted by parasitic tropical worms may help them to find a more effective treatment for inflammatory types of arthritis.