18-Apr-2017: Anti-viral drug from frog mucus

Skin mucus secreted by a frog species found in Kerala can be used to develop an anti-viral drug that can treat various strains of flu. Frog mucus is loaded with molecules that kill bacteria and viruses and researchers are beginning to investigate it as a potential source for new anti-microbial drugs.

One of these “host defence peptides”, found in a frog species (Hydrophylax bahuvistara) native to Kerala can destroy many strains of human flu and protect mice against flu infection.

When researchers delivered small electric shocks, they collected the secretion that contained a peptide, or chain of amino acids, that appears to fight off the H1 strain of flu virus.

The researchers named the newly identified peptide “Urumin” after the urumi, a sword with a flexible blade that snaps and bends like a whip. Electron microscope images of the virus after exposure to Urumin reveal a virus that has been completely dismantled.

Urumin is not toxic to mammals, but “appears to only disrupt the integrity of flu virus”. When researchers squeezed some Urumin into the noses of lab mice, the peptide protected them against what would have otherwise been a lethal dose of H1 flu virus, the kind responsible for the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

It seems to work by binding to a protein that is identical across many influenza strains, and in lab experiments, it was able to neutralise dozens of flu strains, from the 1934 archival viruses up to modern ones.

More research is needed to determine if Urumin could become a preventive treatment against the flu in humans, and to see if other frog-derived peptides could protect against viruses like dengue and Zika.