Which Animal Has The Best Immune System
Just considering humans take made it to the top of the food concatenation doesn't mean we don't wet our pants every time a spider looks at usa funny. Deep down we know that we're simply clawless animals, and if left lone in a room with annihilation non beautiful plenty for an animated gif, we'd exit via man-shaped hole in the wall. Or the door. It could go either manner. That'due south why it'south important to stop every once in a while and remind ourselves that the creatures in nature's nightmarish cavalcade of horrors are saving our lives every day.
For instance ...
Crocodile Blood Might Kill Mortiferous MRSA Bacteria ... and HIV
Have you e'er seen a crocodile utilise antibiotics to his wounds after a gang fight? No, probably non, considering their arms are so short. Simply you also never see crocodiles die of infection despite suffering horrific gashes while living in a bacterial soup of swamp water. After a major battle, crocs walk/swim away, heal upward and go about their usual routine of pretending to be logs and floating in filth. This is why scientists started studying crocodile allowed systems -- nosotros've got people losing limbs to bacteria upwards hither in the people globe, and then why aren't crocodiles dying of infection while living in an ecosystem experts refer to as "nature's toilet"?
An unabridged world, sauteed in turds.
So scientists grabbed some crocodile blood and started exposing it to different infections, including HIV (if yous've ever met a crocodile with AIDS, that'southward some sad shit). What the researchers found was that while man blood could kill eight of the 23 strains of bacteria they attacked it with, alligator claret killed all 23, including antibiotic-resistant MRSA. From that point frontwards, the scientists renamed croc blood Muhammad Ali and human blood Screech Powers.
It turns out the crocodile's whole immune system is organized differently from ours. Instead of getting likewise technical about how it works, we'll let Australian scientist Adam Britton explain information technology: "The crocodile has an immune organization which attaches to bacteria and tears it apart and it explodes." Fuck yes.
Hither's an electron microscope shot of it in activity.
So it is hoped that the croc blood proteins tin can exist adult into drugs for humans (drugs that we hope will have pictures of crocodiles on the characterization), since those tests revealed that crocodile serum could explode lots of bacteria that plague humans, even those superbugs that are resistant to penicillin.
And yes, later tests showed information technology was as well effective at killing HIV. In that location is a lot more testing to exist done, then don't go crazy yet. It will take years just to make sure pumping a ill person full of crocodile blood doesn't plough them into Killer Croc.
Or if we take a say, ensure that information technology does.
Cobra Venom Might Terminate HIV and MS
The greatest flick villains of all time weren't messing around when they named themselves afterwards the cobra and the kai. Cobras are the devil. Did you know they spit venom at your eyes, the 2nd worst place you lot can get snake venom? If you get enough of it in your organisation, get set up to enjoy hurting, necrosis and maybe even paralysis, as the toxins bind themselves to neuromuscular junctions, blocking communication betwixt the key nervous system and your muscles. Because mercy is for the weak, and an enemy deserves no mercy.
And then how in the hell could that ever make a person's life ameliorate in whatever way?
Maybe if you survive it, you can use it every bit a pickup line or something.
Well, scientists think that part of what makes venom then nasty is that it suppresses the torso's power to fight back by hampering the immune organisation'south normal healing process. So if yous had a affliction caused past an overactive immune organisation, a chemical that slows it down would exist the proverbial vigilante offense fighter keeping a corrupt police section in cheque. This may be why in Republic of india cobra venom is considered an arthritis cure -- arthritis is caused by the body's own immune organization keeping the sufferer'southward joints chronically inflamed.
So and so you first looking at other even more horrible diseases, similar multiple sclerosis and HIV -- both of which involve royal cock-ups in the immune system. Although science is still not certain of what causes multiple sclerosis, nosotros know that for some reason the immune system begins to destroy the protective layer around the torso's neurons, which sucks because neurons are the metaphorical heart of the nervous system. Information technology'southward kind of similar shooting through your own shields in Space Invaders. Only instead of dropping your head in shame and running out of the arcade because it'southward 1982 and yous're in an arcade for some reason, you end up with scars that keep your brain from communicating with the rest of the nervous system.
In theory, ophidian venom could go on that cocky-destructive process in cheque, if only information technology wasn't, yous know, incredibly toxic (because information technology's snake venom). Fortunately, a visitor has patented a process for removing the paralyzing part of the venom, and what's left acts every bit a kind of regulator to the allowed system's Wild West anarchy, halting the development of MS in ninety percent of the rats treated for rat MS.
Oh, and we need to talk well-nigh HIV for the second entry in a row, considering research shows that cobrotoxin (the stuff in cobra venom, if you couldn't figure that out from the name) also might cease HIV. The mode the venom goes to work on the immune system kind of shoulders HIV out of the way (they latch onto the same receptors in the cells). And so hither'southward to a future where subsequently a positive HIV test, the doctors immediately showtime pumping you total of ophidian venom and crocodile blood.
"... she said she was make clean, but I effigy a precautionary seize with teeth couldn't injure."
Vampire Bat Spit Tin can Salve Your Encephalon
If you lot have a vampire bat flapping around your head right now and you're getting scared because, yous know, it's called a vampire bat, nosotros have good news: Vampire bats don't actually suck your claret.
Instead, it'll just seize with teeth you lot and then leisurely lick the wound as claret leaks out, similar you're his lollipop. Later on he's had enough, he'll fly off and leave you to keep bleeding for several hours.
"What did I tell you? Y'all challenge a bat to a lick fight, you're gonna lose that battle every time."
Yes, hours. This might seem weird to you equally yous watch it soak through one Band-Aid after another, since nosotros're talking about a tiny wound fabricated with little baby bat teeth. Shouldn't that little nibble scab over after, say, an hour? No, because vampire bat spit contains a blood thinner that keeps the blood flowing in example he or his friends want to come up dorsum for another drink from the red fountain. They really thought of everything.
Then how does this assistance you, or anyone else other than gauze manufacturers? Well, imagine you lot're having a heart attack in your brain, otherwise known as a stroke. Blood flow to your encephalon has stopped, usually considering of a jell blocking upward the claret vessel. Then your brain has a freakout considering it'due south not getting oxygen, and depending on which office of the brain was damaged, your trunk has its ain meltdown. If you lot get to a hospital, the doctors can administer a medicine to break up the clot as fast as possible, but but if it'south been no longer than iii hours since the symptoms started.
"I'd suggest finding a mask for half of your face and the nearest opera house with a spacious basement."
At that point, there's even so a chance they can deliquesce the clot and protect the encephalon from further damage, simply the medicine also has a one-in-15 gamble of causing bleeding to the encephalon, so maybe they relieve your motor functions but flood your brain with blood and kill yous. If you lot had a stroke right earlier bed and didn't figure out annihilation was wrong until y'all woke up, yous're shit out of luck, because no one is going to administer the clot-breaking medicine.
That's where bat spittle comes in. Early tests have plant that in that location's a protein in bat spit that can bust clots for up to 9 hours afterwards the onset of a stroke. Ix hours is huge in stroke-fourth dimension; it could mean the divergence betwixt living the rest of your life equally a vegetable and living your life with a slight slur that adds interest to your character, depending on where the damage was washed. And the drug might be available to doctors as presently every bit 2014.
Until then, nosotros but have to have them lick the spot where the stroke happened.
Shark Skin Bacteria Repellent
Between Jaws, Shark Week and the blood-curdling choreography from the Latino gang in West Side Story, most of the states take gained a healthy appreciation of sharks. Sure, we know that more people are killed by cows than by sharks every year, but y'all can't look at those soulless beady eyes and that mouth full of glue razors and not shiver until the pee comes down.
"Wet arrange? Yes, I did."
Possibly information technology'southward our irrational fear of the scapegoats of the sea that kept us from noticing something important about them: Goose egg sticks to their skin. While whales are dripping in barnacles and manatees collect enough algae to host garden parties on their backs, sharks stay polish. And it's not just because the bacteria is scared.
Information technology turns out that a shark's peel has special denticles to repel everything from it. That'south because their pare isn't skin skin, information technology's scales. You simply thought they had smooth skin because the scales are and so freaking awesome in how they piece of work. Rub their skin ane fashion, and the scales are as smooth as a babe'due south butt. Rub it the other manner, and the scales are as rough as a total-grown human's butt. That's because the scales are bundled in a diamond pattern that creates an air cushion when you lot rub them toward the tail, but go rough when yous rub them toward the head. And what scientists figured out is that algae and leaner don't like to live on shark skin, considering its unique texture makes information technology hard for the tiny organisms to attach themselves to it.
This illustration is drawn to scale -- HAHAHAHA, GET Information technology?!
Information technology but took a little research to figure out how to duplicate the pattern that made shark skin bacteria-repellent. So the first matter scientists did with this technology was cover Navy ships and subs in a plastic sharkskin motion-picture show that also repelled algae. The second thing they did was brand Michael Phelps a special arrange and so he could win medals. The 3rd thing they did was say, "Holy shit! This could besides save millions of lives!"
Up until now, in the war against deadly bacteria, we've usually employed ane tactic: kill it. Impale every bug nosotros can with antibacterial soap, medicine and tiny knives. And in response, the bacteria has just gotten resistant, thanks to the miracle of natural selection. Which is why 99,000 Americans a year die from infections they got in the hospital. But if we could make surfaces the bacteria simply don't like to abound on ...
Fruit.
That'south why a company chosen Sharklet Technologies is now marketing a sticky motion picture covered in the sharkskin pattern to employ on all of the hospital surfaces that collect diseases -- the bedside tables, door handles, even those plastic bracelets no one ever thinks to disinfect. So the next time you're swimming in the ocean and a shark bites off your arm, give him a petty wink of thanks. His peel might proceed you from losing the rest of your body to infection.
That really has cipher to practice with this entry. We but wanted you to know how serious the pit viper is. For the most part, the jararaca bite works a number on your blood, causing your blood vessels to amplify and your insides to hemorrhage. But before all that takes place, the victim collapses in a heap because of a sudden drop in blood force per unit area. And in the 1960s, researchers figured out why: The venom contains a protein that blocks angiotensin-converting enzyme, or ACE. That's the enzyme that keeps your blood pressure at the right level. Block information technology and your claret force per unit area falls; block it enough and you dice.
"Looks like someone's been hit the ol' snake juice, huh, Grandma?"
At this point, you can already estimate where this is going: High blood pressure is an indicator of a future stroke, eye disease, aneurysms, death and a medicine cabinet full of pills. Oh, and 31 pct of Americans over age xx have it. And so loftier blood pressure kills manner more people a year than pit vipers, is what nosotros're saying. But what if we could use the pressure-dropping ability of jararaca serpent venom to help people who tin't stop eating potato chips? In 1975, that's exactly what the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb did. Past the early '80s, yuppies everywhere had access to a drug that would reduce the blood pressure that came from playing the stock market place game and constant cocaine use, with its almost common side effect existence a cough.
And ... "other things."
Smashing for a poison that tin can turn your leg into a giant vagina, huh?
And for animals that are but going to straight kill your ass, check out The vi Cutest Animals That Can However Destroy Y'all and The six Deadliest Animals Too Adorable to Run Away From.
Get the Croaky Daily Newsletter!
We've got your morning reading covered.
Recommended For Your Pleasure
Source: https://www.cracked.com/article_20037_5-terrifying-animals-that-could-save-your-life-someday.html
Posted by: kennedypricandere1942.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Which Animal Has The Best Immune System"
Post a Comment