Cute Pandas Have Special Blood that May Be a Source of New Antibiotics!

Pandas are more than just cute, cuddly creatures. Researchers have found that the endangered animals produce a strong antibiotic in their blood that fights against drug-resistant superbugs – a discovery that may add weight to conservation efforts.

The antibiotic compound, cathelicidin-AM, destroys both fungi and bacteria, and is released by the animal’s immune system to ward off infections, the Telegraph reported. Scientists at Life Sciences College of Nanjing Agricultural University in China found cathelicidin-AM while studying pandas’ DNA. The powerful compound can kill bacteria in under an hour, whereas most well-known antibiotics take at least six times longer than that.

The discovery has important implications for humans, as researchers work to find new ways to combat increasingly potent strains of bacteria. “Under the pressure of increasing microorganisms with drug resistance against conventional antibiotics, there is urgent need to develop new type of antimicrobial agents,” Dr. Xiuwen Yan, the study’s lead researcher, told the Telegraph. Antibiotics produced in animals’ bloodstreams, like that of the panda, have a much smaller chance of causing drug-resistant strains of bacteria, Yan explained.

The new research may provide a much-needed push to save panda; only about 1,600 exist in the wild. Panda populations have continued to drop as urban growth destroys their bamboo habitats in China and southeast Asia. Breeding in captivity, as well as in the wild, has proved to be exceedingly difficult for the animals. Female pandas are only able to become pregnant once a year.

The animal’s breeding struggles, however, will not hinder scientists from making use of the antibiotic. They have already begun to artificially produce the substance in a lab by decoding the panda’s genes to create a tiny molecule called a peptide. Researchers are now working to find ways to transform that peptide into a drug that fights bacteria – or into an antiseptic that kills germs.

Yan said it is also possible that similar antibiotics are produced in other animals. Close compounds have been found in the mucus of snails and other amphibians. “More than 1000 antimicrobial peptides have been found from animals, plants, and microorganisms,” Yan said, adding that the cathelicidin-AMfound in pandas was most similar to the cathelicidin found in dogs.