Frogs for your health

So as I am sure most if not all of you are aware we are kind of running out of effective antibiotics as microorganisms develop resistances to drugs like penicillin as we continue to use them frequently. Because of this scientists are always on the hunt for new sources of antibiotics and they seem to have found an abundant new source, though in a rather unconventional place. It would seem that so called "odorous frogs", which live in more bactericidal active environments than most frogs are covered in antibiotic substances called AMP's or antimicrobial peptides. Through taking samples of these substances from just nine species of these odorous frogs an incredible 728 AMP's were found with 662 of those being previously undiscovered. All of these AMP's showed strong results when purified and used against microbes. One particularly interesting property of these antimicrobial peptides is not only that they acted as antibiotics but that when activated they also increased the response of the frogs immune system. These AMP's could possibly be used as antibiotics alone or to influence research with the goal of creating AMP's that influence the human immune system.

http://io9.com/5863925/the-worlds-smelliest-frogs-are-a-treasure-trove-of-antibiotics