Komodo Dragon blood may hold the key to fighting infectionsApril 15, 2017 - 14:06 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Komodo Dragon blood could save your life. Curious scientists -- are there any other kind? -- recently identified a peptide in the Dragon plasma that might serve as an antibiotic. Now, a bite from a Komodo Dragon is lethal not from venom, but from bacteria in the reptile's saliva, and the Dragons don't kill each other when they get into tussles the way they do hunting prey, which suggests an immunity. So the researchers, inspired by previous work done with alligators and crocodiles, made a synthetic version of a peptide (a chain of amino acids) found in Dragon's plasma, VK25, Engadget said. The hope is to use the lab-designed peptide, DRGN-1, as a topical antibiotic. "DRGN-1 exhibited promising antimicrobial and anti-biofilm properties," the paper reads. "Moreover, the DRGN-1 peptide significantly promoted wound healing in vitro and in vivo, in both uninfected and mixed biofilm infected wounds." In their experiments, the scientists saw that DRGN-1-treated sores experienced "accelerated skin wound closure and healing." What's more, it culled the amount of bacteria in the wounds of infected mice. We're likely to hear a lot more about DRGN-1 in the future as the recent experiments only tested a third of the pathogens known to infect wounds, Engadget said. Photo: Reuters Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |