Saturday - August 28, 2010
Frogs To The Rescue?
Powerful new antibiotics developed from the skin of frogs could take the fight against superbugs to a higher level. Frog skin is known to have plenty of potent germ-fighting compounds because of the hostile surroundings they inhabit. But these substances are often poisonous to humans. Now a team at the United Arab Emirates University have thought up a way of altering the chemicals to remove their toxicity.
They have already identified 100 new antibiotics including one that could fight the hospital superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria.
Frog skin is an excellent potential source of such antibiotic agents,” said Dr Michael Conlon, a biochemist at the university in Abu Dhabi.
“They’ve been around 300 million years, so they’ve had plenty of time to learn how to defend themselves against disease-causing microbes in the environment.
“Their own environment includes polluted waterways where strong defences against pathogens are a must.”
Scientists are testing skin secretions from more than 6,000 species of frogs for antibiotic activity. They say they have purified and determined the chemical structure of about 200, leaving a potential treasure trove of antibiotic substances awaiting discovery.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Maybe those three old witches were onto something after all!
Posted by Drew458
on 08/28/2010 at 12:19 PM
Filed Under: • Medical •
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