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Panda Blood Compound 6x More Powerful Than Current Antibiotics
DVICE ^ | Jan 1, 2013 | Evan Ackerman

Posted on 01/01/2013 1:54:41 PM PST by DogByte6RER

Panda Cub from Wolong, Sichuan, China

Panda blood compound 6x more powerful than current antibiotics

In what could be either very good news or very bad news for our fluffy black and white friends, it's been discovered that panda blood contains an antibiotic compound that's vastly more powerful than anything we've got right now.

Researchers at the Life Sciences College of Nanjing Agricultural University in China have extracted a compound called cathelicidin-AM from the blood of giant pandas. Cathelicidin-AM is what's called a gene-encoded antimicrobial peptide, a natural antibiotic that's produced by a panda's immune cells. Testing has shown that cathelicidin-AM can kill even drug resistant strains of bacteria and fungi, and it can do in one hour what conventional antibiotics can barely do in six, without causing nearly as much resistance.

Cathelicidin-AM could get turned into a drug, or it could get turned into a surface sanitizier. Either way, the researchers say that they're not done with the panda genome yet, and other secret drugs may be awaiting discovery, like whatever it is that makes pandas have a non-stop craving for bamboo.

As far as the pandas themselves go, here's the good news: the fact that panda blood is now useful for humans means that pandas themselves are useful for humans for things besides modeling for WWF logos and stuffed animals, and the hope is that it'll make it easier to keep them from going extinct.

And here's the bad news: this stuff comes from the blood of pandas, so getting it out involves stabbing a panda and sucking out some of its juices. My guess is that pandas don't like this very much. It's a good thing that scientists have just about figured out how to synthesize cathelicin-AM, because otherwise, we're in for some very sad pandas.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous; Pets/Animals; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: antibiotics; antibodies; china; medicine; panda; pandablood; pandas; weirdscience
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To: DogByte6RER

Winning


21 posted on 01/01/2013 3:07:51 PM PST by al baby (Hi Mom)
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To: DogByte6RER

Winning


22 posted on 01/01/2013 3:07:51 PM PST by al baby (Hi Mom)
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To: DogByte6RER

Winning


23 posted on 01/01/2013 3:07:51 PM PST by al baby (Hi Mom)
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To: DogByte6RER

Winning


24 posted on 01/01/2013 3:07:51 PM PST by al baby (Hi Mom)
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To: DogByte6RER

Winning


25 posted on 01/01/2013 3:08:05 PM PST by al baby (Hi Mom)
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To: DogByte6RER

Winning


26 posted on 01/01/2013 3:08:13 PM PST by al baby (Hi Mom)
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The Place for Conservatives

Happy New Year!!

27 posted on 01/01/2013 3:20:35 PM PST by RedMDer (Those that believe in gun free zones should post gun free zone signs on their property and persons.)
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To: DogByte6RER
Cathelicidin-related antimicrobial peptides are a family of polypeptides found inlysosomes of macrophages and polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs).[1]Cathelicidins serve a critical role in mammalian innate immune defense against invasive bacterial infection.[
28 posted on 01/01/2013 3:44:58 PM PST by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: mjp

A panda bear with god news to share.


29 posted on 01/01/2013 4:23:05 PM PST by DIRTYSECRET
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To: DogByte6RER
From the article:

As far as the pandas themselves go, here's the good news: the fact that panda blood is now useful for humans means that pandas themselves are useful for humans for things besides modeling for WWF logos and stuffed animals, and the hope is that it'll make it easier to keep them from going extinct.

I was always confused as to why they changed the name of the Worldwide Wrestling Federation (WWF) to WWE.

30 posted on 01/01/2013 4:32:36 PM PST by Blue Highway
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To: Blue Highway
WWF
31 posted on 01/01/2013 4:54:47 PM PST by DogByte6RER ("Loose lips sink ships")
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To: publius911

BOOKbump


32 posted on 01/02/2013 12:16:24 AM PST by S.O.S121.500 (That Queer Kenyan muzzy bastard is not my president. ENFORCE the Bill of Rights.)
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