We have identified a potentially new treatment for H1N1 human influenza virus, which is a peptide that comes from the skin of a frog from southern India.

Joshy Jacob

Categorized in : Health News

In this paper we screened 32 peptides, and the surprise was that four out of 32 had activity against the virus, out of the four, we found one of them (urumin) was non-toxic to human cells.

The milk stayed good, just like you refrigerated it, in 2012, scientists took that particular frog and wanted to know why is it, why do these frogs keep milk fresh? It turned out that when you shock a frog or when you stimulate them or stress them, they secrete these short peptides into their surroundings.

This peptide works by directly killing the virus, and it is specific for all influenza viruses that have a H1 type of hemagglutinin.

The frog makes this peptide for its own survival. It never gets i... by Joshy Jacob

The frog makes this peptide for its own survival. It never gets influenza.

You have the message and then you have the little stem that holds it up. The message can change but the stem is the same, and this peptide targets the stem of the hemagglutinin, that's why it's very efficient.

It just blows it up. It makes the virus particle fall apart. by Joshy Jacob

It just blows it up. It makes the virus particle fall apart.