Many health experts predict that by 2050 resistance to various types of antibiotics will be the cause of more than 10 million deaths . For example, gonorrhea, one of the most widespread sexually transmitted diseases, has already become resistant to many of today’s antibiotics and is increasingly causing alarming cases.
Hence, for science it is crucial to find alternative methods to antibiotics or more powerful antibiotics capable of fighting these diseases. Well, according to a study published in the Journal of Proteome Research , the blood of the Komodo dragon, which is the largest lizard in the world, has qualities to treat resistance to antibiotics.
Previous research had already tried to find alternative methods to antibiotics to eradicate the resistance they produce. One carried out by McMaster University in 2014 studied a molecule hidden in a fungus, but without great results. Now, a team from George Mason University says that a protein from the blood of the Komodo dragon has the potential to overcome this resistance thanks to its antimicrobial properties.
The Komodo dragon, with its 3 meters in length and 70 kilos in weight , also has its fierce mouth colonized by 57 types of dangerous bacteria , which supposedly come from the sources of contaminated water where they usually drink. And according to the aforementioned study, his blood would have the secret to treat these resistance to antibiotics. Precisely the need to fight those bacteria that live in their mouths would have induced the Komodo dragons to create substances capable of killing them . The substances are basically peptides, small protein fragments created by the reptiles’ own immune system, and which seem to defend them from a bacterial infection for weeks while their immune system produces antibodies against said disease.
The researchers responsible for the experiment developed a hydrogel to capture these protein fragments from the dragon’s blood and identified 47 fragments suitable for their antimicrobial properties. They then managed to manufacture eight of these protein fragments and tested them against very dangerous bacteria, including the superbugs Pseudomonas aeruginosa and multi-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Of the eight manufactured fragments, seven were capable of killing laboratory-grown bacteria , while one of them was only effective against Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Although the researchers say that it is early to develop antibiotics from these Komodo dragon proteins, they believe that in a few years it will be feasible.
