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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION 16 August 05 Crocodile blood may yield new antibiotics
Scientists in the Northern Territory are collecting blood from crocodiles to help develop new antibodies for humans.
Researchers from Darwin's Crocodylus Park and the US are collecting blood samples from crocodiles to isolate the powerful antibodies that protect the reptiles from serious infection.
They say crocodiles often lose limbs in territorial fighting but rarely succumb to disease.
Professor Mark Merchant, a biochemist from Louisiana, hopes to isolate the antibody chemicals that could be reproduced for human drugs.
"If it went on the market we wouldn't isolate them from crocodile blood, we would synthesise those," he said.
"We determine the structure of that molecule and we can even play games with that molecule, maybe to make it more effective, but the base molecule is in the white blood cells we think, of the saltwater crocodile."
Dr Adam Britton says the antibodies' protein could be used for a new class of antibiotics.
"Don't expect to go down the chemist in the next few months and see you know, 'crocodilian' that you can take as a tablet," he said.
"But when you do finally see something on the shelves - and hopefully we will in the future - then you can be safe in the knowledge that Northern Territory crocodiles were a big part of that equation."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1438287.htm

EVENING NEWS (Ediburgh, UK) 16 August 05 Crocs' blood may hold key to new HIV cures
A crocodile's immune system kills the HIV virus much more effectively than the human system does, scientists said today.
Experts in Australia are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antibiotic for humans.
The crocodile's immune system is much more powerful than that of humans, preventing life-threatening infections after savage territorial fights.
"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 almost always without infection," said US scientist Mark Merchant, who has been taking crocodile blood samples in the Northern Territory.
Initial studies of the crocodile immune system found that several proteins (antibodies) in the reptile's blood killed bacteria that were resistant to penicillin. It was also a more powerful killer of the HIV virus than the human immune system.
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1790832005

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&summit=&storyid=2005-08-16T050539Z_01_DIT618322_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-AUSTRALIA-CROCODILE-DC.XML

Crocodile blood may yield powerful new antibiotics

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antibiotic for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills the HIV virus.

The crocodile's immune system is much more powerful than that of humans, preventing life-threatening infections after savage territorial fights which 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 proteins (antibodies) in the reptile's blood killed bacteria that were resistant to penicillin, such as Staphylococcus aureus or golden staph, Australian scientist Adam Britton told Reuters on Tuesday. It was also a more powerful killer of the HIV virus 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. It can kill a much greater number of HIV viral organisms," Britton said from Darwin's Crocodylus Park, a tourism park and research center.

Britton said the crocodile immune system worked differently from the human system by directly attacking bacteria immediately an infection occurred in the body.

"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 wounds; burn patients often have their skin infected and things like that," said Merchant.

However, the crocodile's immune system may be too powerful for humans and 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.
Reuter's News

Not to worry Doc …

We understand that when it comes to complicated matters involving nature, sometime our friends in the press might not pass along all of the details … purely in the interest of brevity for the ‘layman’ mind you.

Fortunately, this group is au fey enough with things crocodilian to pick up the subtle differences between your alleged quotes in the press of “Masih banyak pekerjaan yang harus dilakukan. Mungkin perlu waktu bertahun-tahun untuk mencapai pada sesuatu tahap yang dapat dipasarkan“ and “Der kan gå år før, vi har udviklet et antibiotika til mennesker
med udgangspunkt i krokodillers immunforsvar“.

See … we know what you wanted to say!

(Aside: Busy down there, aren’t you!)

Cheers & respects
Wes

http://www.tv2oj.dk/nyhe_nyhed_tv2_s.asp?newsID=42840

http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/udland/article.jhtml?articleID=269631

http://www.mno.hu/index.mno?cikk=302092&rvt=37&norel=1&PHPSESSID=0a56c9c5f7a0e751ed9750bb16c2a19b&pass=2

http://spravy.pravda.sk/sk_kskop.asp?r=sk_kskop&c=A050816_104113_sk_kskop_p12

http://www.todito.com/paginas/noticias/178321.html

http://www.kompas.com/teknologi/news/0508/17/145224.htm

http://www.suaramerdeka.com/cybernews/harian/0508/17/int2.htm

http://www.hri.org/news/greek/eragr/2005/05-08-17_1.eragr.html

http://www.terra.cl/noticias/noticias.cfm?id_reg=527537&id_cat=303

http://www.elsoldezacatecas.com.mx/mostrarnota.asp?id=319&cat=19

http://www.tvazteca.com/hechos/archivos2/2005/8/116786.shtml

http://www.vecernji-list.hr/newsroom/zanimljivosti/354389/index.do

Wes note: These following two don't count for the 'refute' challenge ...

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/August/theworld_August449.xml§ion=theworld&col=

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=8/17/2005&Cat=7&Num=9