Color of insects with anti-cancer drugs and tropical diseases

According to researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, the beetle-colored beetles or butterfly-colored larvae may signal chemical compounds that work against cancer. Cell letter or tropical parasitic diseases.

This can accelerate the progress of pharmaceutical research as well as bring an understanding of the evolutionary relationship between tropical forest plants and insects that feed on them. The research report is published in the American Ecological Society's Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment magazine.

Todd Capson, STRI chemical researcher and lead the project, said: 'The results are particularly interesting and important. It can bring a direct, positive impact on the future of treatments for many diseases worldwide '.

Colorful beetles can be a sign of useful plant chemicals.(Photo: Don Windsor, STRI)

In the study, scientists used plants that contained anti-cancer compounds as well as being able to fight off parasites carrying the disease; combined with plants without these properties. Research shows that threatening insects and moths often appear in plants that contain compounds that are useful for certain types of diseases , such as breast cancer or malaria. Meanwhile, in plants with or without the above characteristics, the number of simple color insects concentrated on the tree is not much different (According to the study of the international cooperation program on biodiversity. Panama, Smithsonian).

Researcher Julie Helson said: 'We perform logical calculations. Pests with vivid colors seek to warn predators that they have an unpleasant taste, they carry toxins from their hosts. However, because other pests cheat by mimicking poisonous animals, we are not sure if the color of the insect can be used to identify plants that contain toxins . ' When conducting this study in 2005, Helson was a student of McGill University.

The Smithsonian's PICBG program is the first to demonstrate that the theory of chemical defense of rainforest plants - for example, young leaves often have high chemical defense - can reduce costs. and significantly improve the effectiveness of the pharmaceutical research process when compared to random scanning methods.

Although the colorful insect perspective supports the process of finding plants to treat diseases more easily, it has been debated for decades, but it has never been thoroughly tested. New research at the Smithsonian provides another example of the ability of ecosystems to contribute to the study of new drugs.

The study identifies that the alerting of insects with warning colors can increase the effectiveness of the search for anti-cancer compounds and tropical parasitic diseases by four times. Capson said: 'The actual results of the study are very exciting. I hope other researchers will pursue this work and examine our theory that insects can lead us to plants that have disease resistance '.

The study also demonstrates the protection of rainforests - not just insects and plants, but at all levels - capable of bringing infinite benefits to human health.