‘This unique species can help fight antimicrobial resistance’ 

In a recently-published paper in the journal BBA Biomembranes, CCMB scientists said Antimicrobial Protein (AMP) in the milk of echidna can help fight antimicrobial resistance.
‘This unique species can help fight antimicrobial resistance’ 

HYDERABAD: Can a small mammal, belonging to a unique family of animals and restricted to only two countries, help humans fight antimicrobial resistance? Scientists from the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) think so.

In a recently-published paper in the journal BBA Biomembranes, CCMB scientists said Antimicrobial Protein (AMP) in the milk of echidna can help fight antimicrobial resistance.

Echidna is a mammal of the Tachyglossidae family, which has only four species. Echidna are restricted to Australia and Papua New Guinea, and are unique in that while they are mammals, they lay eggs. Once the eggs hatch, the young ones feed by licking on milk secreted by their mother through a ‘mammary patch’, as the animal does not have nipples.

The scientists, headed by Satish Kumar, who was earlier a chief scientist at the CCMB, studied AMP in echidna milk and reported how it compromises cell membrane of a bacteria and kills it.
Kumar said they found AMP from echidna milk to be efficient against a broad spectrum of bacteria, including S. aureus, B. subtilis and E. faecalis. This opens up possibilities for testing AMP from echidna milk against antimicrobial-resistant bacteria that cause infections in humans, he said.

Could help control mastitis in cattle

AMP from echidna milk protects the animal from a mammary-gland disease while lactating known as mastitis, which is a serious health problem among cattle. The scientists observed that when the gene containing AMP was introduced in female mice, milk from the mice also contained the AMP from echidna

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