“They have a very sophisticated system that deals with dangerous and sometimes deadly infectious diseases with amazing effectiveness,” he says. Eric FrankScientists from the Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology at the University of Würzburg said the cure rate for ants was almost 90 percent. “We can learn a lot from these small creatures.”
Frank and his colleagues studied how ants produce antibacterial substances and apply them to the wounds of their fellow ants, and recently reported their findings. findings Published in Nature Communications.
Their research focused on ants infected with the following viruses: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a toxic and often drug-resistant bacteria commonly found in ant injuries. This is the same microorganism that contaminated human eye drops in the United States last year, causing blindness and death.
Scientists say insights into ants’ behavior could also have implications for humans, especially when it comes to drug-resistant bacteria, which poses a growing threat and makes it difficult to treat certain infectious diseases.
“There’s a lot of potential for further analysis by pharmaceutical companies and other scientists in these fields,” Frank says. “We have a scenario very similar to ours: an animal with an infected wound and another animal treating it. If you’re facing the same problem, here are the solutions these ants have come up with. should be able to translate into our own systems to some extent.”
History is replete with examples of science turning to nature as a source of human therapy. “Some of the most useful and durable antibiotics and antiparasitic drugs were first discovered from natural sources,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center. he says. Vaccine developers were not involved in the study.
This includes antibiotics streptomycin and anti-parasitic drugs Ivermectin, both isolated from the soil. Bacteriophages, viruses found in sewage, soil, wastewater, and animal internal organs, are harmless to humans but kill bacteria.and magainin antibacterial peptideIt is collected from the skin of Xenopus laevis.
“The Magainin case was based in part on observations of rapid healing of frog skin, and is not that different from the discovery in ants,” Hotez says. “This means that looking at antimicrobial substances in natural products is a promising route to discovering new anti-infective drugs.”
When ants treat infected wounds, they produce a substance made up of 100 compounds and 41 proteins. This allows Ali “a multipronged approach, like a broad-spectrum antibiotic,” Frank says. “We believe that some of these compounds definitely have applications in our medical systems as well.”
The secretions had the “highest abundance ever” of a protein he had never seen before, he said, adding: “There’s something special about this protein in treating infected wounds. There must be something,” he added.
Named after the Matabele tribe of southern Africa, ants hunt with military-like precision. Scouts first discover termites, then return to the nest and recruit up to 800 ant soldiers.
They follow the scouts in columns and attack together. Only five to 10 ants were injured, “which may not seem like a lot,” Frank said, but “these ants can go hunting up to five times a day. That number is likely to increase rapidly.” This could mean 1,000 in a month, but he says it doesn’t matter because the number of colonies he has is less than 2,000.
“Ants have a special chemical profile in their epidermis that allows them to recognize each other,” explains Frank, who likens this to a uniform, identifying queens, foragers, nurses, and others with other jobs. It has a “medal” that identifies it and tells you its condition. About injuries. Frank said this allows the ants to recognize when they are hurt and when their immune systems are fighting infections.
Ants extract antibiotics from the retropleura on the side of their thorax. “Imagine that the posterior pleura is sort of a pocket, about the same height as your pants pocket,” Frank says. It contains a sticky antibacterial secretion. “To apply to the wound, the ant reaches into this pocket with its front paws, collects the secretion in its “hand”, licks the secretion from the hand and stores it in its mouth. Once enough secretions have accumulated in the mouth, they will begin to lick the wound. ”
Robert T. Schooley, an infectious disease specialist and phage expert at the University of California, San Diego, said the study “speaks very strongly to the power of evolution at both the societal and individual levels.” ing. Society succeeds when it protects its most vulnerable people. ” Schooley was not involved in the study.
“Additional research could provide insights leading to antibiotics useful in humans and veterinary medicine,” Schooley says, but added, “These compounds have been applied topically and cannot be administered systemically.” It is not clear what kind of toxicity will occur if this happens.”
Researchers hope to collect more samples for further analysis, but this may be difficult as the site in northern Ivory Coast, where the initial fieldwork took place, is currently under legal restrictions. . terrorist threatsays Frank. “We are trying to find a workaround by working with local people who collect the ants and send them to Germany,” he says.
Ants performing “triage”
He first noticed the social behavior of ants when he accidentally drove by an ant-hunting party.
“I immediately got out of the car and checked on Ali,” he recalls. “There was pandemonium, with ants running around like crazy. But they also looked for the wounded, and picked up and brought back those who were still worth saving. To their surprise, they were seriously injured. They left Ali behind. They were doing a kind of triage.”
His team is also studying army ants in Costa Rica and several ant species in Europe, and has discovered similar wound treatments, and hopes to include other social insects such as honeybees. is.He is also considering how Chimpanzees use insects to treat wounds. “Overall, I think the topic of wound care in the animal kingdom is frustratingly understudied and there is still a lot for us to discover,” he says.
