Don't Swat! That Creepy-Crawly Could Save Lives

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Health - Reuters

Don't Swat! That Creepy-Crawly Could Save Lives

Mon Jul 22, 1:50 PM ET

By Belinda Goldsmith

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Think twice before you swat that creepy-crawly on your

arm, for if a team of Australian scientists are right, that insect could one

day save your life.

A group of scientists from the entomology unit of Australia's

government-funded scientific research agency, CSIRO, on Monday launched a

company dedicated to making drugs from a virtually untapped source--insects.

While scientists have tried for centuries to extract Mother Nature's cures

from the world's 250,000 or so plant species, there has been little research

into the proteins, enzymes and molecules produced by the 4 million-plus

insect species.

The company, Entocosm Pty Ltd., has embarked on what it believes are

world-first trials using insects' chemistry to fight drug-resistant bugs and

other deadly diseases.

" Traditional Chinese medicine has used insects for centuries to fight

disease but it's only recent technological advances that have made it

possible to use small insects to develop drugs, " Entocosm's Chief Scientific

Officer Trowell told Reuters.

" Australia is the ideal location to pursue this because 10% of all the

world's species are found here and a lot of our insects are as unique to

Australia as kangaroos, " he added.

Trowell said scientists at CSIRO--the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial

Research Organization--started work on this project 5 years ago, collecting

over 1,000 insect species along Australia's east coast for tests.

INSECT ATTRACTION

By extracting insects' chemistry--basically by infusing the insect like

brewing tea--they identified molecules in some critters with the potential

to create antibiotics and zap cancer cells. They then try to recreate the

molecule artificially.

One example was the cathedral termite, which builds 8-meter (26-foot) tall

mounds in the Australian outback.

Trowell said scientists, realizing these mounds would be hotbeds for

bacteria and fungi, tested the chemistry of these termites to see how they

suppressed the growth of microorganisms and found three new antibacterial

compounds.

" These were not as potent as we wanted though so we won't be taking these

tests further, but for commercial reasons we can't give details on the ones

we are now looking at seriously, " said Trowell, who was a scientist at CSIRO

for 13 years.

He said the scientists set up a company to help take the project out of the

laboratory and into the commercial world, appointing New York-based Malcolm

Binks Associates LLC as investment banker to raise capital to fund research.

Trowell said initially the company planned to focus on producing antibiotics

to fight drug-resistant bacterial and fungal diseases, drawing on the

expertise of the CSIRO's library of about 11 million insect specimens from

about 250,000 species.

Its next target will be cancer, taking a leaf from traditional Chinese

medicinal practitioners who advocated frying certain beetles and eating them

to kill cancer cells.

" But optimistically, we're probably 5 years away from clinical trials and it

could be 10 to 15 years before we hit the market commercially, " Trowell said.