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Komodo Dragons may hold the key to fighting infections
Komodo Dragon blood could save your life. Curious scientists -- are there any other kind? -- recently identified a peptide in the Dragon plasma that might serve as an antibiotic. Now, a bite from a Komodo Dragon is lethal not from venom, but from bacteria in the reptile's saliva, and the Dragons don't kill each other when they get into tussles the way they do hunting prey, which suggests an immunity. So the researchers, inspired by previous work done with alligators and crocodiles, made a synthetic version of a peptide (a chain of amino acids) found in Dragon's plasma, VK25.
