Cockroach brains could be the answer to a puzzling medical problem

Experts think cockroach brains could be the best ingredient for fighting superinfections in humans.

While cockroaches themselves may make our skin crawl, what’s inside them could hold the key to enabling us to fight against infectious diseases.

With antibiotic resistance on a worrying rise and the solution puzzling scientists, research has found that the brains of both cockroaches and locusts have antimicrobial compounds that fight against harmful bacteria like E. coli and MRSA.

Ground-up extracts of brains and other nerve tissues from the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana, and the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria, were able to kill over 90 per cent of the type E. coli that causes meningitis. It also killed methicillin-resistant staph bacterium, which is resistant to antibiotics.

Some of these insects live in the filthiest places ever known to man,” Naveed Khan, coauthor of the study, said. “These insects crawl on dead tissue, in sewage, in drainage areas. We thought, ‘How do they cope with all the bacteria and parasites?’”

The background theory behind the investigation of locusts and cockroaches came when experts noticed that soldiers returning from service in the Middle East were coming back with unusual infections, while locusts or cockroaches in the same area were unaffected.

iStock

To test their idea, the team ground up various parts of lab-reared cockroaches and locusts and incubated them along with different kinds of bacteria.

They left them overnight on Petri dishes and found that brain extracts and those from the locusts’ thorax nerve tissue killed close to 100 per cent of the bacteria. Meanwhile, extracts from the insects’ fat, muscle and blood did not have any effect on the bacteria.

Experts found nine molecules that appear to be responsible for antimicrobial activity in locusts, and they were working on identifying them.

Why not read…

Is cockroach milk the next big superfood?

Three-fanged snake discovered in Australia might be most venomous yet

Every blue eyed person on the planet comes from one single person

Sign up for our free indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings