Looks like the immune system fo C. Porosus kills HIV

[Comrade Tortoise]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050816/hl_ ... e_blood_dc

Crocodile blood may yield powerful new drugs

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

SYDNEY (Reuters) - 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.
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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.

[Cynical Cat]

Damn. Another reason to love the crocodilians. That's one bad ass immune system.

[frigidmagi]

They've only had how many millions of years to work on it?

[Hotfoot]

The one thing that makes me wonder about the article is the fact that it describes what the Croc's immune system does to bacteria, not how it handles a nasty little retrovirus that targets the immune system itself.

Other than that, looks like a damn good idea, assuming they can get it to work. Just hope Croc Cure isn't down the way of Croc Tears.

[Pcm979]

As I understand it, the big problem with destroying HIV is the fact that it changes form so often that the immune system can't keep up. It looks like the Croc's immune system circumvents that problem by destroying it before it changes.

[Hotfoot]

That causes another potential problem, the one of an auto-immune response, where the immune system (or in this case, the croc-boosted immune system) is so aggressive it starts attacking benign or helpful/useful systems in the body.

[Pcm979]

Well, for a Croc it's an acceptable tradeoff. For us, though... I expect after a shot of Croc-booster you'd need to take a lot of supplimental pills.

[Hotfoot]

Indeed. I do hope they get it to work, though I'm a little worried that initial tests might scrap the project.

[Comrade Tortoise]

That causes another potential problem, the one of an auto-immune response, where the immune system (or in this case, the croc-boosted immune system) is so aggressive it starts attacking benign or helpful/useful systems in the body.

This could be an issue... but so long as you can get it to recognize human antigens you shouldnt have a problem. Modify it a bit.. as it were

As for destroying HIV, remember that the reason HIV works so wel on humans, in addition to mutation, is that it lies dormant in our white blood cells for months or years at a time. If you can kill it before it goes dormant like that... yeah