Featured Image Credit: Jim Watt
By Kira Krall
Nature is the best pharmacy. Over millions of years, life has evolved to fill an infinite amount of ecological niches. In order to fill those niches, animals have had to develop adaptations in response to different stressors. Scientists’ using naturally-occurring compounds in human medicinal research is called “biomimicry.” Biomimicry has been used to extract antibiotics from corals and sponges. Mollusks and microorganisms also contribute to your medicine cabinet, but researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina are now switching their focus to a famous cetacean: dolphins.
Some marine mammals, like the Cuvier’s beaked whale (pictured above,) can dive for over two hours without taking a single breath. They can do this because they naturally cut off blood flow to vital organs in order to send more oxygen to the brain. Their liver, kidneys, lungs, and even heart suffer hypoxia, or reduced oxygen flow. This oxygen deprivation followed by immediate re-supply could be fatal to humans. So how can marine mammals do it?
They’ve developed high levels of vanin-1, a gene responsible for creating vitamin B5. This process creates an antioxidant that protects against the ill effect of reoxygenation. Michael Janech, Ph.D., is researching this antioxidant to see if it can help defend against kidney injury in humans. Heart attack and stroke research using this protein is also in the works.
If Dr. Janech and his associates can unlock a synthetic version of this protein, it will mean that victims of kidney disease, heart attack, and stroke will have a way of coping with the negative side effects that those conditions leave behind.