Potent Antibiotic Found in Giant Panda Blood

Greetings, ATS!

Well, this could be some wonderful news. Discovery News is reporting that scientists have discovered a potentially super-strength antibiotic in the blood of Giant Pandas.

The primary component in giant panda blood is called cathelicidin-AM. It was found after analyzing the panda's DNA. This compound kills bacteria in less than an hour. Other well known antibiotics take more than six hours to tackle the same job.

Xiuwen Yan, who led the research at the Life Sciences College of Nanjing Agricultural University in China, told the London Telegraph: "It showed potential antimicrobial activities against wide spectrum of microorganisms including bacteria and fungi, both standard and drug-resistant strains." Yan continued, "Under the pressure of increasing microorganisms with drug resistance against conventional antibiotics, there is urgent need to develop new type of antimicrobial agents. Gene-encoded antimicrobial peptides play an important role in innate immunity against noxious microorganisms. They cause much less drug resistance of microbes than conventional antibiotics."

Thankfully, the scientists have come up with a way to reproduce the compound in the lab, so no Giant Pandas are harmed in the making of the new potential drug.

Could this compound be used to fight the anti-biotic resistant strains of bacteria? Just yesterday I read a thread here about the increasing immunity of the malaria disease. Perhaps this is a step in the right direction.

Very interesting! .....and I hope the rest of the world , when they get this knowledge , is as gentle with giant panda bears as we are! ...do you think the antibiotic has to do with what they eat? ...what do they eat anyway?

reply to post by Meldionne1


Thought all they ate was bamboo ?

reply to post by Snoopie


I think bamboo is a large part, but not the only item...I remember reading somewhere they are mostly vegetarian but carnivores too. ...and do they like only one kind of bambo? I think there are several kinds in the jungle. So maybe that one strain of bamboo is the key!?

awesome news!! i have been wondering if they could derive antibiotics from some of the resistant animals we have. crocodile and alligator, along with vultures, would be a good place to look also as all these animals have fantastic resistance to many organisms that infect human beings.

Originally posted by smyleegrl

Thankfully, the scientists have come up with a way to reproduce the compound in the lab, so no Giant Pandas are harmed in the making of the new potential drug.

I hope it is true that they will not need to harm the Pandas to reproduce the drug.
If they had to harm the Panda to get to the good stuff, will they admit to it???
(This is just the conspiracy theorist in me speaking.)

Anyway, I just think this is BAD NEWS for the Panda.
It may be good news for Humans, ...but never good for the Pandas.

The scientists will always just need "one more sample", and "one more sample", and then "one more sample", etc.

reply to post by QMask

That was my 1st thought when i saw the thread title-that this bodes ill for the Giant Panda species.I do hope it won't further threaten their survival-they should hopefully be able to synthetise it-i mean it would be just pathetic if they can make all the hideous bio-weapons,but not be able to synthesise an element in animal blood.I really hope these Pandas are not going to be suffering as a result of this,that a good thing dont have to come out of this at the expense of these animals.Are they not an endangered species as it is?

Theyve already artificially reproduced the compound. No need to keep using the pandas.