Tiny particles of silver are to become the latest weapon in the fight against the MRSA superbug in Scottish hospitals.

Giltech, an Ayr-based technology company, is to start clinical trials on products it hopes to roll out across every NHS trust in Scotland.

Its hair and body wash and nasal ointment, containing silver ions, will be used on infected patients in hospitals run by NHS Ayrshire & Arran. The aim is to eliminate the spread of the bacteria, which can be fatal.

Gillian Watson, the chief executive, believes the technology would be effective on almost any bacteria, including C. difficile. She said: “Silver is nature’s own anti-microbial. It essentially smothers the bugs so they can’t breed, eat or reproduce. With existing products which are mainly alcohol-based, they kill the bugs that are there, but as soon as you touch your nose or a patient, they can re-colonise. With this, the ions remain and give you ongoing protection.

“Silver kills all bugs. We have lists of hundreds of thousands of pathogens and microbes that it will be effective against.” Ions are put into a special glass called Arglaes, created by Giltech. The shower gel contains small pieces of the glass, which dissolves on contact with liquid, releasing the ions onto the patient’s skin.

Trapping the ions in the glass means Giltech can measure exactly how much silver is used, keeping it within recommended levels of exposure.Watson said: “We can adapt our technology to be put into products for different applications. This technology could be incorporated into almost everything a hospital could use.”

It is not the first time silver has been used to prevent infection: the Romans and Greeks used the metal to keep water supplies clean, and it was used as an antibacterial agent by surgeons in the first world war.

Giltech has invested about £1m in the technology with the help of Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme funding from Royal Bank of Scotland. It believes that the development could boost its turnover fivefold to £5m within five years.

It will begin trials next summer and the products should be ready by 2013. The firm is looking for a commercial partner to take them worldwide.

Dr Bob Masterton, the chief medical officer for NHS Ayrshire & Arran said: “This is a really exciting innovation. We need something that patients are happy with and that will be clinically effective and safe.”

In the UK, it is estimated that 300,000 people develop a healthcare-associated infection such as MRSA each year, killing about 5,000 patients.

FUNGUS NAILED

Novabiotic, the biotech firm, is on the verge of signing a seven-figure licensing deal for its fungal nail infection treatment Novexatin.

The Aberdeen-based company said it was in talks with about 10 pharma businesses about a partnership to bring the product to the market, which is worth an estimated £3 billion, and hoped to make an announcement by the end of the year.

Novexatin has successfully finished phase-two clinical trials.

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