I know... cockroaches are gross, they live in nasty areas, hang out in feces, sewers, dead tissue, pretty much anything that is really really nasty. But think about it... they have to fight off all that harmful bacteria somehow. Recently scientists thought about this and started doing tests on cockroaches to see if they could fight off any diseases for humans, and guess what, it can! There are antimicrobial compounds in cockroaches brains that can actually fight off MRSA and E. coli. When the scientists tried to grow bacteria in petri dishes with locusts the locusts nerve tissue fought off 100% of the bacteria.
All of this work is very new and there aren't going to be cockroach brains for sale in the pharmacy anytime soon, but it is still all groundbreaking knowledge. To think that we have been living with these insects for millions of years on Earth and didn't know that they could fight off disease. It really makes you wonder what else we haven't discovered yet. I don't know about anyone else, but I had a false feeling that we had for the most part made all the advances in medicine that we were going to. This brings hope that maybe we still can find cures for many diseases that are plaguing the world today.
This is very relative to our class because it obviously has a lot to do with science, but I thought it also seems to have a little bit of magic. If you think about any magic potion that a witch would make, they put all sorts of animal parts into it. Four legs of a spider, a bat's eyeball and maybe even a cockroaches brain!
Sources
It will definitely be interesting to see what common or not so common things will be used in medicine in the future. The things we use in everyday life for medicinal purposes today might not even have been considered many years ago. With technology and research it is very likely that there will be many new discoveries like this in medicine and science.
ReplyDeleteI hope scientists find a way to make this useful in our lives. Knowing that cockroaches have the ability to fight off these diseases and knowing we as humans can't makes me curious as to why they have evolved to be able to this and why we, humans, have not. I hope somehow, we can create a medicine that does what cockroaches already have the ability to do.
ReplyDeleteI love cockroaches! I think this is such a cool idea because it never crossed my mind that since they are so dirty they must have extremely good immune systems.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting article. I am surprised that scientists have not found any use of cockroaches until now considering they have been around for thousands of years. It's also interesting to note that in our generation of exponential technological advances we go backwards and look to a primitive species for an answer.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty nasty, granted E.Coli is a terrible thing. I'm sure they will develop it into some sort of pill-esque drug. The great thing about scientific research is that if you have any question we have technology today to answer those questions, like if cockroaches can cure disease.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the folks up there that this is interesting news and also amazing. Scientist are able to extract the useful DNAs from plants, animals, and inccents that can fight off bacterias and to use them to help our lives.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting.. its amazing that they've been a part of our world for so long. What a good idea to study them to find out how they can benefit us.
ReplyDeleteI think that would be really interesting if scientists will be able to use cockroaches' bizarre immune systems to human's advantage.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what's worse, getting MRSA or having to smear cockroach brain's all over yourself. I wonder what someone was doing when they figured that cockroaches might provide medical benefit.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting concept. Still, I'm not sure taking a roach pill would be all to exciting for me.
ReplyDeleteTom, you write about being hopeful for more CURES for, how did you put it “many diseases that are plaguing the world today." I also hope that that we have not reached the all the advancements in medicine yet for it seems to me that once someone finds a plausible way to manage a disease, they consider the problem solved and move on to something else. Although it is great the disease is now manageable, it's still a disease. Research should not be stopped until we have found a way to ride an individual from their discomfort once and for all.
ReplyDelete