Panda Blood May Hold Potent Assailant Against Superbugs 149
An anonymous reader writes "Pandas have long been the face of conservation efforts by environmental activists, but a recent finding may boost even further the need for pandas to evade extinction. Researchers have discovered a powerful antibody in panda blood that could serve as the next frontier in the fight against increasingly prevalent superbugs. The compound is called cathelicin-AM. Discovered when researchers analyzed the creatures' DNA, it has been found to kill fungus and bacteria. It is believed that the antibiotic is released to protect the animal from infections in the wild and, in studies, it has been found to kill both standard and drug-resistant strains of microbes and fungi. The compound also worked extremely quickly, killing off strains of bacteria in just an hour, while conventional antibiotics needed six."
Guaranteed Extinct Within 5 Years (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Until they become resistant to that, too... (Score:5, Insightful)
It may be that Pandas are not common enough for most microbes in the area to evolve immunities to its defenses. It's roughly comparable to turtle shells: they work against run-of-the-mill predators, but a few predators have evolved solutions for getting at the turtle meat and have made it a staple of their diet.
Another analogy is a sports team that uses a non-traditional offense: too few teams are prepared for it such that it's effective. However, if it becomes wide-spread or championship-bound teams use it, then the competition has the chance or motivation to learn how to work around it, and the "special" offense loses its punch and is no longer special. It thus creates a kind of round-robbin rotation of strategies over time.
Or as Shark Lincoln once said, you can fool some of the predators all the time, or all the predators some of the time, but you can't fool all of the predators all of the time.