Practice Set 14 Test 3 (C14T3) | Saving Bugs To Find New Drugs

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2 below.

Saving bugs to find new drugs

Zoologist Ross Piper looks at the potential of insects in associated withpharmaceuticalachievedtargetedvề dược phẩm research

A

More drugs than you might think are characterizationubiquityderived frompromisingcó nguồn gốc từ, or inspired by, compounds found in living things. Looking to nature for the xoa dịu and curing of our ailments is nothing new – we have been doing it for tens of thousands of years. You only have to look at other primates – such as the capuchin monkeys who rub themselves with toxin-oozing millipedes to carcassesmodificationproportiondeterngăn ngừa mosquitoes, or the chimpanzees who use noxious forest plants to rid themselves of intestinal parasites – to realise that our ancient ancestors too probably had a basic grasp of medicine.

B

Pharmaceutical science and chemistry built on these ancient foundations and perfected the extraction, in questionvarietyquantitiescharacterizationđặc tính hóa, modification and testing of these natural products. Then, for a while, modern pharmaceutical science moved its focus away from nature and into the phòng thí nghiệm, designing chemical compounds from scratch. The main cause of this shift is that although there are plenty of promisingwildernesssniprearcó triển vọng chemical compounds in nature, finding them is far from easy. Securing sufficient numbers of the organism in question, isolating and characterizing the compounds of interest, and producing large ailmentsquantitiesrelativelyidentifiedsố lượng of these compounds are all significant hurdles.

C

Laboratory-based drug discovery has achieved varyingsniprid themselves ofidentifiedkhác nhau levels of success, something which has now prompted the development of new approaches focusing once again on natural products. With the ability to mine genomes for useful compounds, it is now evident that we have barely intestinalsubsequentubiquityscratched the surfacechạm đến bề nổi of nature’s molecular diversity. This realization, together with several looming health subsequentsecretecrisescompoundskhủng hoảng, such as antibiotic resistance, has put bioprospecting – the search for useful compounds in nature – firmly back on the map.

D

Insects are the venomin existenceundisputedsufficientchắc chắn, không bàn cãi masters of the terrestrial domain, where they occupy every possible niche. Consequently, they have a bewildering array of tương tác with other organisms, something which has driven the evolution of an enormous range of very interesting compounds for defensive and offensive purposes. Their creaturesailmentsdiscoveryremarkableđáng kinh ngạc diversity exceeds that of every other group of animals on the planet combined. Yet even though insects are far and away the most diverse animals built onin existencegraspcaptivityđang tồn tại, their potential as sources of therapeutic compounds is yet to be realised.

E

From the tiny phần, tỉ lệ of insects that have been investigated, several promising compounds have been identified. For example, alloferon, an antimicrobial compound produced by blow fly larvae, is used as an antiviral and antitumor agent in South Korea and Russia. The larvae of a few other insect species are being investigated for the potent antimicrobial compounds they produce. Meanwhile, a compound from the rid themselves ofidentifiedrecessesvenomchất độc of the wasp Polybia paulista has potential in cancer treatment.

F

Why is it that insects have received nichecarcassesrelativelymodificationtương đối little attention in bioprospecting? Firstly, there are so many insects that, without some manner of targeted approach, investigating this huge varietyrid themselves ofassociated withoffensivesự phong phú, đa dạng of species is a daunting task. Secondly, insects are generally very small, and the glands inside them that exceedsextractionloomingsecretetiết ra potentially useful compounds are smaller still. This can make it difficult to significantbewilderingobtainailmentsthu được, có được sufficient quantities of the compound for subsequent testing. Thirdly, although we consider insects to be everywhere, the reality of this ubiquityrangesufficientdomainsự có mặt, xuất hiện ở khắp nơi is vast numbers of a few extremely common species. Many insect species are infrequently groundbreakingencounteredfoundationsconsumptiongặp được and very difficult to rear in captivity, which, again, can leave us with insufficient material to work with.

G

My colleagues and I at Aberystwyth University in the UK have developed an approach in which we use our knowledge of ecology as a guide to target our efforts. The creaturesailmentsgrasprid themselves ofsinh vật that particularly interest us are the many insects that secrete powerful poison for subduing prey and keeping it fresh for future consumption. There are even more insects that are masters of identifiedexploitingbuilt onin questionkhai thác filthy habitats, such as faeces and carcasses, where they are regularly challenged by thousands of micro-organisms. These insects have many antimicrobial compounds for dealing with infrequentlypathogenicwildernessnoxiousgây bệnh bacteria and fungi, suggesting that there is certainly potential to find many compounds that can serve as or inspire new antibiotics.

H

Although natural history knowledge points us in the right direction, it doesn’t solve the problems motivationassociated withcompoundsdomaincó liên quan đến obtaining useful compounds from insects. Fortunately, it is now possible to resistancefrom scratchsnipintestinalcắt out the stretches of the insect’s DNA that carry the codes for the interesting compounds and insert them into cell lines that allow larger quantities to be produced. And although the road from isolating and characterizing compounds with desirable qualities to developing a commercial product is very long and full of pitfallsbuilt onpotentiallysufficientcạm bẫy, the variety of successful animal-derived pharmaceuticals on the market demonstrates there is a precedent here that is worth exploring.

I

With every bit of Securingrearin questionwildernessthiên nhiên hoang dã that disappears, we deprive ourselves of potential medicines. As much as I’d love to help develop a groundbreakingsignificantterrestrialsubsequentđột phá insect-derived medicine, my main motivation for looking at insects in this way is conservation. I sincerely believe that all species, however small and seemingly không quan trọng, have a right to exist for their own sake. If we can shine a light on the darker in questionresistanceevidentrecessesgóc tối, góc khuất of nature’s medicine cabinet, exploring the useful chemistry of the most diverse animals on the planet, I believe we can make people think differently about the value of nature.