Antibiotics Gain Strength With Natural Compound

Bio.com ^ | 7/20/04

[fourdeuce82d]

medical pingage.

[Mariner]

The biggest story of the century so far.........

[capt. norm]

With runaway strains of syphilis and some hospital infections that are resistant to just about all antibiotics, this discovery comes none too soon.

[gitmo]

According to Cohen, bacteria are divided into two groups -- Gram-positive and Gram-negative -- based on the structure of their cell walls.

Gee. I thought this was established by Dr. Gramm when he intoduced his stain.

[techcor]

The biggest anti-biotics on the horizon are crocodillin and komododillin which are peptides derived from crocodile and komodo dragon blood. They seem to destroy any bacteria so far.

[Oystir]

This guy is also apparently working on an E. Coli vaccine.

[neverdem]

Sounds quite interesting as antibiotic research for bacteria is progressing at a snail's pace. The big drug companies make the big bucks on drugs taken on a chronic basis, not relatively rare and episodic bacterial infections.

[neverdem]

Do you have any references to crocodillin and komododillin.
I can't find either at PubMed or google them.

[LibWhacker]

That's interesting. It figures those critters have some kind of super-effective defense. I've heard there are so many nasty bacteria in the mouths of komodo dragons, that you'll die of infection if a komodo's tooth just grazes you.

[LibWhacker]

LOL, I caught that, too.

Editor must've been sleeping.

[Califelephant]

BBC: Croc Blood Battles Superbugs: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/680840.stm

Antibiotics from Big Scary Reptiles: http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/pharm/antibiot/readings/croc.htm

[CDHart]

Interesting. Thanks for the post.

Carolyn

[neverdem]

Thanks for the links.

[neverdem]

Airborne noticed an interesting article PING.

[techcor]

Yes, LibWhacker that is exactly why they have something in their blood. As for a site I googled "crocodillin peptide" and found many sites. Here's one http://www.rense.com/politics6/croc.htm.
Here's a little excerpt:

Croc Blood Battles Superbugs 3-17-00       Scientists in the United States have isolated a powerful agent in crocodile blood which could help conquer human infections immune to standard antibiotics.   The discovery was made thanks to the curiosity of a BBC science producer filming a documentary on salt-water crocodiles in Australia, BBC Director-General Greg Dyke revealed on Thursday.   "Our producer noticed something that surprised her - despite the horrendous injuries the crocs inflict on each other, their wounds rarely get infected," he told the annual dinner of the Science Museum in London.   "She discussed this with a young croc expert who agreed that it would be interesting to try to find out why.   "After many adventures, they got their blood samples and last week a leading research institute isolated from these samples what I'm told is a novel anti-microbial peptide.   Bacteria 'blown away'   "In tests, this substance kills strains of virulent bacteria that are resistant to all standard antibiotics," Mr Dyke said.   Named crocodillin, it may one day be used in drugs to treat human infections.

Pretty impressive stuff.

[techcor]

I should've checked the posts you were an hour before me . Oh, well. Interesting stuff. I wonder if you took some crocodile blood and spinned it in a centrifuge if you could just take the top part and if it would be useful. It's just a peptide so it should be light.

[nkycincinnatikid]

bump

[Oystir]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=594&e=2&u=/nm/20040721/hl_nm/health_superbugs_dc

[Sender]

If/when they are ever released for humans, they will probably have some catchy names like Whatacroc and Kilzitol.