Dragon's Blood Could Save Your Life

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Chemists have found potential drugs and other really useful compounds in some truly bizarre places in nature, and who would have ever thought that blood from the Komodo dragon could have a secret inside of it that could possibly save your life. But it doesn't end there, so we're taking a closer look at other wild places in nature that we've found fantastic drugs!

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Writer/Producer:
Kirk Zamieroski

Executive Producer:
Adam Dylewski

Scientific consultants:
Al Segars, Ph.D.
Jacqueline Fries, Ph.D.
John Yates, Ph.D.
Darcy Gentleman, Ph.D.
Kyle Nackers

Music:
Roberto Daglio - Con Todo Meu Amor
Smidi - Cadillac Candy

Special Thanks to Schoolyard Films for giving us the awesome Horseshoe Crab Blood milking footage. See their in depth video on horseshoe crabs here:

https://florida.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/7fc02c9a-5678-4eab-9d10-0485fe66363e/horseshoe-crabs-prehistoric-paramedics/#.WWTKucaB2_U

SOURCES:

Antibacterial resistance - https://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/community/about/antibiotic-resistance-faqs.html

Komodo Dragon’s Blood - https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2017/acs-presspac-february-22-2017/antimicrobial-substances-identified-in-Komodo-dragon-blood.html

Biofilms - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2732559/
& https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23635385

Antimicrobials in Komodo Dragon blood - http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jproteome.6b00857

VK25 inspires the DRGN-1 peptide - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41522-017-0017-2

DRGN-1 Kills biofilms - https://www.asm.org/index.php/2015-12-11-13-38-57/2-uncategorised/94002-antimicrobial-properties-of-peptides-derived-from-reptiles

MRSA is getting crazy - https://thefern.org/ag_insider/pig-related-infections-spread-denmark-may-u-s/

Dendrilla Membrosa - http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/np50123a020

Darwinolide Story - https://phys.org/news/2016-06-antarctic-sponge-deadly-mrsa-infection.html

Darwinolide - http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.orglett.6b00979?src=recsys

Horseshoe crabs “over 300 million years old” - https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Invertebrates/Horseshoe-Crab.aspx

3-15% die, based on interviews with biologists -
http://www.radiolab.org/story/213797-krulwich-wonders-what-vampire-said-horseshoe-crab-your-blood-blue/

Evolutionary info on horseshoe crabs -
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/pr1002033

The original 1956 paper by Frederick Bang that got everything going -
https://web.archive.org/web/20090719101429/http://www.mbl.edu:80/marine_org/images/animals/Limulus/Bang/index.html

How Blue Blood coagulates around endotoxins -
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3756735/

Crab Bleeding - http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a26038/the-blood-of-the-crab/

LAL v TAL
http://bio.lonza.com/uploads/tx_mwaxmarketingmaterial/Lonza_AppNotesTossSheets_FDA_and_USP_can_help_promote_horseshoe_crab_conservation.pdf

Hemocyanin - http://www.jbc.org/content/276/19/15563.full