Odatria_14_NOV13 - Victorian Herpetological Society

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HERP HAPPENINGSFlexible Snake Armor Could InspireAbrasion-Resistant MaterialsSnakes are highly specialized legless animals, whichevolved around 150 million years ago. Althoughwithout extremities, their body is exposed to constantfriction forces. The PhD-student Marie-Christin Kleinand Professor Stanislav Gorb of Kiel University foundout how snake skin is adapted to legless locomotion.The skin is stiff and hard on the outside and becomessoft and flexible towards the inside, independent ofhabitat. Biology could inspire systems in engineeringwith minimized abrasion.Klein and Gorb are publishing their current results in theAugust 15 of the Journal of the Royal <strong>Society</strong> Interface.Snakes inhabit all large ecosystems apart from thePolar Regions. They are able to climb trees and burrowunderground. The skin, exposed to a good deal of friction,has to last until molding takes place, which is every twoto three months. “The skin of snakes therefore has to beoptimized against abrasion wear,” assumed Marie-ChristinKlein at the beginning of her research.has a relatively thin skin with elongated cells. “This speaksfor a functional adaptation to legless locomotion, whichhas developed for snakes in both moist and dry habitats,”says Klein.“This research area is extremely new,” Klein reports. “Thegeneral composition of snake skin is known, however,but no one has by now examined the impact of this onthe mechanical material properties. A material that has atransition from a stiff outside to a flexible inside can distributean impacting force over a larger area, therefore decreasingthe force on one single point. Materials like this are like aflexible amour.” Possible application areas can be found inthe medical engineering sector, in which friction could forinstance be optimized for artificial implants. Furthermore,the propulsion and conveyer technique market could profitfrom the abrasion minimization findings, since lubricationwould have to be implicated less often. The friction systemof snake skin is an important model in the bionics researchat Kiel University (Group: Zoological Institute, ProfessorStanislav N. Gorb) for the development of new and theoptimization of already existing materials.Science DailySeptember 2012Green Tree Python(Morelia viridis)With Stanislav Gorb she examined the skin of four snakespecies: sand boa (Gongylophis colubrinus), the kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula californiae), the rainbow boa(Epicrates cenchria cenchria) and the green tree python(Morelia viridis), which inhabit different environments,from the desert to tropical trees. “With the help of thesefour species we found out that the skin architecture differsdepending on habitat. However, all show a gradient inmaterial properties. This means that the skin of all specieshas a stiff and hard outside and becomes more flexibleand soft towards the inside, even though the skin differs inthickness and structure depending on species,” explainsKlein her findings, which confirm her assumption that theskin of snakes is optimized against abrasion wear. Thefour snake species achieve this mechanical effect bydeveloping for instance different cell types. One specieshas a relatively thick skin with round cells, while the other22Common Antifungal Drug DecreasesTumor Growth and Shows Promise asCancer TherapyAn inexpensive antifungal drug, thiabendazole, slowstumor growth and shows promise as a chemotherapyfor cancer. Scientists in the College of NaturalSciences at The University of Texas at Austin made thisdiscovery by exploiting the evolutionary relatednessof yeast, frogs, mice and humans.Thiabendazole is an FDA-approved, generic drug takenorally that has been in clinical use for 40 years as anantifungal. It is not currently used for cancer therapy.Hye Ji Cha, Edward Marcotte, John Wallingford andcolleagues found that the drug destroys newly establishedblood vessels, making it a “vascular disrupting agent.” Theirresearch was published in the journal PLoS Biology.Inhibiting blood vessel, or vascular, growth can be animportant chemotherapeutic tool because it starvestumors. Tumors induce new blood vessel formation to feedtheir out-of-control growth.In trials using mice the researchers found thiabendazoledecreased blood vessel growth in fibrosarcoma tumorsby more than a half. Fibrosarcomas are cancers ofthe connective tissue, and they are generally heavilyvascularized with blood vessels.
The drug also slowed tumor growth.“This is very exciting to us, because in a way westumbled into discovering the first human-approvedvascular disrupting agent,” said Marcotte, professor ofchemistry. “Our research suggests that thiabendazolecould probably be used clinically in combination with otherchemotherapies.”The scientists’ discovery is a culmination of research thatcrosses disciplines and organisms.In a previous study, Marcotte and his colleagues foundgenes in single-celled yeast that are shared withvertebrates by virtue of their shared evolutionary history.In yeasts, which have no blood vessels, the genes areresponsible for responding to various stresses to thecells. In vertebrates, the genes have been repurposed toregulate vein and artery growth, or angiogenesis.“We reasoned that by analyzing this particular set of genes,we might be able to identify drugs that target the yeastpathway that also act as angiogenesis inhibitors suitablefor chemotherapy,” said Marcotte.Turns out they were right.Cha, a graduate student in cell and molecular biology at theuniversity, searched for a molecule that would inhibit theaction of those yeast genes. She found that thiabendazoledid the trick.She then tested the drug in developing frog embryos.These are fast growing vertebrates in which scientists canwatch blood vessel growth in living animals.Cha found that frog embryos grown in water with the drugeither didn’t grow blood vessels or grew blood vessels thatwere then dissolved away by the drug. Interestingly, whenthe drug was removed, the embryos’ blood vessels grewback.tumors in mice and found that it reduced blood vesselgrowth in the tumors as well as slowed the tumors’growth.“We didn’t set out to find a vascular disrupting agent, butthat’s where we ended up,” said Wallingford, associateprofessor of developmental biology and Cha’s graduateadvisor with Marcotte. “This is an exciting example of thepower of curiosity-driven research and the insights thatcan come from blending disciplines in biology.”The scientists’ goal is now to move the drug into clinicaltrials with humans. They are talking with clinical oncologistsabout next steps.“We hope the clinical trials will be easier because itis already approved by the FDA for human use,” saidMarcotte.Funding for this research came from the Cancer PreventionResearch Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the Welch Foundation,the National Institutes of Health (grants GM067779 andGM088624) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute(HHMI). Marcotte is the Mr. and Mrs. Corbin J. Robertson,Sr. Regents Chair in Molecular Biology. Wallingford is anHHMI Early Career Scientist.Science DailySeptember 2012Crocodile Escapes During Qantas FlightAn FBI agent rescued passengers in Hollywood’s Snakeson a Plane, but it was a baggage handler who saved theday when a crocodile escaped on a Qantas flight.The croc broke free from its cage and roamed the plane’scargo hold during the flight from Brisbane to Melbourneuntil unsuspecting baggage handlers discovered thereptile when unloading the luggage upon landing.A Qantas spokesman said the crocodile measured about60 centimetres in length and was caught without incident.An investigation is underway into how the crocodileescaped on the flight last Monday.“The animal was quickly and safely secured when theaircraft arrived in Melbourne,” the spokesman said in astatement.“The investigation is focusing on whether it had been loadedappropriately on delivery to Australian air Express.”A frog tadpole with normal blood vessel development (fluorescing,top) and a frog tadpole with blood vessel development that wasdisrupted by the common antifungal medication, thiabendazole(bottom). New research published by Cha et. al. reveals thatthiabendazole slows tumor growth and shows promise as achemotherapy for cancer.Cha then tested the drug on human blood vessel cellsgrowing in Petri dishes, finding that the drug also inhibitedtheir growth. Finally, she tested the drug on fibrosarcomanews.com.auSeptember 2012Mystery Over Boy Bitten By World’s MostVenomous SnakeA teenager has been bitten by the world’s most venomous23
Page 2 and 3: Odatria2012 VHS Committee:President
Page 4 and 5: HUSBANDRY CONFERENCEMay 11 th and 1
Page 6 and 7: Top Ten Little Known Venomous Snake
Page 8 and 9: In New Guinea, however, many people
Page 10 and 11: Michael and Mike (Swan) were in rad
Page 12 and 13: HUSBANDRYCunningham’s skinks are
Page 14 and 15: winter period. At this time Cunning
Page 16 and 17: BEHAVIORAL CHARACTERISTICS ANDCOMPA
Page 18 and 19: TAMING THE SAVAGE RAINBOW BEASTGrah
Page 20 and 21: INDONESIA REMAINS EPICENTER FOR ILL
Page 24 and 25: snake in Kurri Kurri, near Maitland
Page 26 and 27: HUMAN FETAL HEARTSThe studies show
Page 28 and 29: The state government has said it is
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Page 32 and 33: The 15 adult males, 15 adult female
Page 34 and 35: is used to handling all different t
Page 36 and 37: and said that the team were surpris
Page 38 and 39: It struck me that we had something
Page 40 and 41: The team has radio-tracked more tha
Page 42 and 43: the pectoral girdle to the region o
Page 44 and 45: “To do this we focused our effort
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Odatria_14_NOV13 - Victorian Herpetological Society

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