Is the cure for cancer riding on the back of a sloth?
Posted by staff / January 28, 2014 cure for cancerrainforest conservationsloth
Sloths aren’t exactly the jackrabbits of the rainforest, but it appears they could be picking up plenty of fascinating fungi on the slow road through their fast disappearing habitat.
Scientists in California, Arizona and Panama started collecting fungi samples off the outer fur of sloths to see what’s lurking in those luscious coats, and the answer is a shocking one that may just have you donating to rainforest conservation right quick.
As Geekosystem reported:
They discovered that the fungi could be active against Malaria, the tropical parasitic Chagas Disease, and a human breast cancer cell. Twenty of the fungi samples were also active when tested against one bacterial strain.
Since sloths are moving (albeit slowly) throughout the diverse rainforest ecosystem, it’s impossible for the scientists to know exactly how the fungi wound up in the sloth’s fur, although they speculate it may have a symbiotic relationship with the green algae that sloths carry on their backs for a tree-top snack.
We know you were hoping it would be your honor student who would discover the cure for cancer, but they’re probably cuter than a sloth…
Hm. Maybe not.
Full story at Huffington Post via Geekosystem.
Photo credit: Fotolia
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