Sloth Fur Might Yield New Drugs
Sloths are cute. Take this video of baby sloths being washed: Until today, this video might represent sheer joy. But a new study causes a different reaction: NOOOO! DON'T KILL THE FUR FUNGI!!! New research, you see, has found that chemicals excreted by microbes in sloth fur had potent activity against a host of human pathogens, and even breast cancer cells, and possess anti-malaria and antibacterial properties. The study found that chemicals isolated from fungi in three-toed sloths were deadly for parasites that cause malaria and Chagas disease (Plasmodium falciparum and Trypanosoma cruzi, respectively). The research was only a partial cataloguing of microbes that live in sloth fur, which the scientists describe as a potential goldmine for drug discovery. It's not surprising on the face of it that sloths harbor some interesting microscopic fur-friends: Cyanobacteria have been known to cover their coats, coloring them green and potentially helping them blend into the rainforests of Central America that they call home. They are also relatively little studied...