As part of an ongoing effort to discover new medications for drug-resistant superbugs, researchers are looking in very strange places. Like inside alligators.
A study from McNeese State University and Louisiana State University is looking at extracts of alligator blood. Why alligator blood? Researchers say that alligators have the ability to automatically fight germs, bacteria, and viruses without prior exposure. Their immune systems can launch a defense quickly and effectively.
The researchers took peptides (a kind of protein) from alligator blood. Just like white blood cells in humans, these alligator peptides are part of the immune system response. In laboratory tests, small amounts of these protein extracts managed to kill a superbug called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and six different strains of thrush. Not too bad for a first time out.
Still, there is no guarantee that alligator blood extracts would work in humans. Right now, the researchers are focusing on using the peptides in topical cream antibiotics that can be used to treat wounds and burns. One problem with using proteins is that the human body is really good at making antibodies to foreign proteins. The human body might reject alligator proteins after a single dose.
The researchers are hoping to synthesize their own drugs that copy the alligator peptides without appearing to be a foreign protein. It won’t be easy, but that isn’t stopping them. The study authors said that alligacin (the alligator peptide cream) could be available to humans within the next ten years. Between now and then, there needs to be a lot more research and experimentation.
Can these alternative antibiotic sources keep up with modern superbugs? Some experts are calling the alligator peptide discovery a “step forward”. With many pharmaceutical companies focusing their research money on other, more profitable kinds of drugs, we need somebody to keep working on antibiotics.