posted August 22, 2005 11:00 AM         

Crocodile blood may yield powerful new drugs

By Michael Perry
Tue Aug 16,10:33 AM ET

Scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antimicrobial drugs for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills HIV.

The crocodile's immune system is much more powerful than that of humans, preventing life-threatening infections after savage territorial fights that often leave the animals with gaping wounds and missing limbs.

"They tear limbs off each other and despite the fact that they live in this environment with all these microbes, they heal up very rapidly and normally almost always without infection," said U.S. scientist Mark Merchant, who has been taking crocodile blood samples in the Northern Territory.

Initial studies of the crocodile immune system in 1998 found that several antibodies in the reptile's blood killed bacteria resistant to penicillin, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Australian scientist Adam Britton told Reuters on Tuesday. It was also a more powerful killer of HIV than the human immune system.

"If you take a test tube of HIV and add crocodile serum it will have a greater effect than human serum," Britton said from Darwin's Crocodylus Park, a tourism park and research center.

Britton said the crocodile immune system works differently from the human system by directly attacking microbes immediately an infection occurs.

"The crocodile has an immune system which attaches to bacteria and tears it apart and it explodes. It's like putting a gun to the head of the bacteria and pulling the trigger," he said.

For the past 10 days, Britton and Merchant have been carefully collecting blood from wild and captive crocodiles, both saltwater and freshwater species. After capturing a crocodile and strapping its powerful jaws closed the scientists extract blood from a large vein behind the head.

"It's called a sinus, right behind the head, and it's very easy just to put a needle in the back of the neck and hit this sinus and then you can take a large volume of blood very simply," said Britton.

The scientists hope to collect enough crocodile blood to isolate the powerful antibodies and eventually develop an antibiotic for use by humans.

"We may be able to have antibiotics that you take orally, potentially also antibiotics that you could run topically on wounds, say diabetic ulcer wound," said Merchant.

However, drugs derived from the crocodile's immune system may need to be synthesized for human consumption.

"There is a lot of work to be done. It may take years before we can get to the stage where we have something to market," said Britton.

Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050816/hl_nm/crocodile_blood_dc_1

posted August 23, 2005 11:46 AM         

More blessed creatures we will abuse for our own selfish ends.

Do we not know what they do to horses to make premarin, which even the medical community rejects more and more due to its ineffectiveness?

I suppose this is more okay because crocodiles aren't as pretty and soft as horses.

Healing is within our grasps, if we would only rely more on ourselves and the natural goodness the earth gives us. But we refuse to change our diets, cleanse our bodies, and learn about natural choices.

posted August 24, 2005 03:57 PM         

I ordered the antidote from this site a year ago.
http://www.biologicalmiracle.com/index.php

There really was no bad impact after I took one dose. I can't prove that it works.
I am not down with an infection really. One thing I noticed is that my allergies have got less severe than it used to before I took them. This thing has a shelf life of 6 months. So it does not make sense to stock it. Also the duration between two doses must be atleast 3 months. Healthy people wishing to take it as a prevention must use only one dose every year.

Heres a discussion thread of people who have used it in the past:
http://www.andrewsw.com/news/index.php?p=842

posted August 27, 2005 04:29 PM         

Thanks for the info. Pretty interesting stuff. I didn't read that far into the message board... but it seems as though (so far) they don't really know it's effects. I intend on reading a bit more later on. I've bookmarked it.

Thanks again.

Trill,

I see your point, and it is valid.

While reading the article, I thought...
The animals shouldn't be mistreated, or killed. Although, I whole-heartedly support them extracting the animals blood.

The animal will be fine, and so might we.

(On the other hand... Silly Libra me )

While on My Wonderful Experience at Mt. Rainier , my friends and I were discussing the survival of the fittest theory.

I expressed my belief that we provide too much Foreign Aid. I am in favor of helping other countries... so long as they are capable of helping themselves. There is no point in attempting to secure a country that cannot sustain itself without us.

Neither of them had looked at it from this perspective before, but agreed it made sense. Its a poor investment.

Survival of the fittest can't take place if the weak don't die off. I know this seems like a harsh thought... but no one ever said this life wouldn't be harsh.

It seems to me that the process of evolution requires the weaker species be over powered by the stronger and slowly dwindle away. Maybe this is what AIDS and Cancer and the like are about?

So... I guess this long rant basically boils down to... I don't really know how I feel about it all. It could prove to be good, it could prove to be bad. Its all going to pan out regardless of how I feel about it... so, I guess we shall see.

Nonetheless, your post really got me thinking. It wasn't until reading your post that I made the connection between that conversation and this string. Thanks. I like to think.