Crocodile blood
may yield anti-HIV drugs

Scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing powerful antimicrobial drugs for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills HIV. 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 after 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.

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, [a] 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. (Reuters)