Why give frogs a Teflon coating?
You might expect frogs and Teflon to meet only in a French chef’s frying pan. But in August, scientists at the University of Michigan revealed details of an experiment in which they created non-stick frog cells. Which, of course, raises the question: why? Since the 1980s, scientists have been especially interested in frogs, among other animals, because their skin produces antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). These proteins are an incredibly useful way for the animals to fight infection — AMPs are potent, broad-spectrum antibiotics. They are the immune system’s first line of defense, combating microbes and viruses as they try to enter the body. Scientists have tried to exploit these disease-fighting characteristics by putting AMPs in creams and other treatments used to fight infection in humans. But enzymes in the human skin stick to the AMPs, often rendering them useless, and increasing the concentration of AMPs often causes toxic side effects, such as killing red blood cells. It was in an
