Frogs may do more than keep your pest situation under control — science is increasingly showing that the little critters also hold secrets to battling human diseases.
Most recently, research published in the Journal of Proteome Research shows that some kinds of a particularly stinky frog, called an “odorous frog,” have skin that produce antibacterial substances
that could potentially be used to fight antibiotic-resistance bacteria.
Because these frogs thrive in warm, wet environments — which are also breeding grounds for bacteria
— they possess the ability to protect themselves from infection, Chinese researchers said.
The researchers looked at nine kinds of odorous frogs and found that this ability comes from producing more than 700 chemicals called specific antimicrobial peptides, which work by killing bacteria and/or amping up the frogs’ immune systems.
Recently, researchers from Queen’ s Univer
sity Belfast found in their research that the skin of the waxy monkey frog has the potential to be used as a treatment for more than 70 diseases.
A protein that comes from the frog is able to stop
the growth of blood vessels, which could therefore be used against cancerous tumors, BBC News reported.