Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. In today's episode is a classic from our archives. In this one, we discuss the charmingly bizarre platypus and how it's milk maybe humanity's best hope against an antibiotic resistant future. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. In the late eighteenth century, British zoologist George Shaw was asked to examine a specimen of a newly discovered creature
fresh off the boat from Australia. He was one of the first scientists to clap eyes on the beaver duck that we call a platypus, and he understandably thought he was the but of a practical joke. He wrote, after examining the noble creature, it naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means. And it's not like the platypus's outlandish appearance is just a cover for an unremarkable physiology and life history. This egg laying mammal use
its food with gravel because it lacks teeth. In fact, it doesn't even have a stomach, but an esophagus that connects directly to its intestines. The males have venomous spurs on their hind legs, and they don't use their tails to steer or propel themselves through the water, but to store body fat. And their bills are so sensitive that they can detect the electromagnetic fields radiated by other organisms, allowing them to swim with their ears, eyes, and nose closed.
But listen, y'all, it gets weirder. Platypuses, and yes, you can also say platypi or platipodes if you want. Nurse. They're young, but they don't have nipples, so the milk to sort of oozes out of their mammary glands and the babies lap it up off their mother's fur. And if you think that might be a bit on sanitary, especially for an animal that swims around in farm ponds all day, you'd be right. But don't worry. Platypus evolution came up with a solution to the problem of bacteria.
Study found that while all mammals milk has antibacterial properties, platypus milk seems to have very special antimicrobial powers. A study published in March in the journal Structural Biology Communications reports that the biochemical reason for the germ busting properties of platypus milk is predictably weird. It contains a protein with a unique and previously unknown structure that might be key in fighting bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics.
What makes this monotream lactation protein or MLP so strange is its shape. Its folds form tight ringlets, which is why it was Christian to the Shirley Temple protein after the iconic care of the child Star. The research team managed to recreate the MLP in the lab, purify it, crystallize it, and then use X rays to determine its three D structure at the atomic level, a structure that has never been seen in any of the hundred thousand
proteins discovered to date. Lead study author Janet Newman said, the most exciting thing for me was to see a protein shape that had never been seen before. It's like being a florist in seeing a completely new flower. So how could this fancy new antibacterial protein be used to fight superbugs? According to Newman, the research team plans to begin by figuring out the relationship between the extra curly form of the protein and its bacteria killing powers. She said.
In theory, there are a number of approaches. We could tweak the structure a little by making site directed mutants of the protein in the lab. This would allow us to see how the activity changes each time until we build up an understanding of the mechanism of how this works. Or maybe we could use some form of the protein to try to isolate its binding partner on the bacterium, which might be some structure on the outside of the bacterium.
According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistant bacterial infections are becoming a serious threat to public health worldwide. The heavy use of antibiotics and intensive animal farming, as well as overuse in human hospitals, has led to the rise and spread of these heavy duty microbes. Diseases like salmonella, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and gnarrhea, all once easily treated with antibiotics, are becoming
less responsive to the drugs used to treat them. In the World Health Organization warned that we may be approaching a post antibiotic era, wherein antibiotics will no longer be effective in fighting infection. This would make everything from childbirth to organ transplants very difficult again, but maybe platypus milk can help. It's predictably so crazy that it just might work. Today's episode is based on the article Platopus milk Our best hope against an antibiotic resistant future on how stuff
works dot Com, written by Jesslyn Shields. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler clang Or more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.