Allergator Blood to Treat Infections?

[Guest guest]

Interesting article.

Melinda

By , USA TODAY

Proteins in alligator blood could lead to new drugs that fight the

super infections that plague humans, Louisiana researchers says.

Alligators often get banged up in battles over territory or food, but

Mark Merchant of McNeese State University in Lake , La.,

noticed they never seem to get infected, despite slimy living

conditions in bacteria-filled swamps.

" These alligators tend to get into tussles and fights, " says Lancia

Darville, a researcher at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge

and a study co-author. " They have torn limbs and scratches that are

exposed to all of this bacteria in the water, yet they are never

infected. "

In a study, presented this week at the American Chemical Society

meeting in New Orleans, Merchant and other experts explain why.

When researchers exposed 23 species of bacteria to the serum from

alligator blood, all of the bugs were destroyed. Humans typically can

defeat only eight of the bacteria.

" That was a good indication that alligators must have some other

additional proteins or some proteins that are overly expressed in

their system that are either not present in ours or not overexpressed

in ours, " Darville says.

The study was the first to explore the anti-microbial activity of

alligator blood in detail, according to the American Chemical

Society. Previous studies by Merchant found that alligators, unlike

humans, who need to be exposed to a bug for their immune system to

gear up to fight it, are born with what is called an innate immune

system.

" They don't need to be exposed to any microorganism such as bacteria,

viruses, fungi for their bodies to respond against them, " Danville

says.

The findings may lead scientists to new drugs that can fight some of

the most stubborn infections in humans, such as the " superbugs " that

resist antibiotics. If scientists can identify and then mimic the

alligator's microscopic defenders, Darville says, they might be able

to make stronger bug-fighting pills or creams that could be applied

to burns to fight infections.

" Ultimately, we would like to determine what the chemical structure

is, " Darville says. " Once we can do that, we could eventually develop

these into different anti-bacterial and anti-fungal drugs. "

[Guest guest]

I have used this on myslef and my duaghter, it is great stuff. Very expensive

( surprise) but effective, especially for bacterial stuff, although who knows

what it did for any viral we might have had at th esame time.

Ellen