Antarctic research team discover anti-inflammatory substances

 The China Post is reporting that after acquiring over 600 various biological specimens on excursions to the Antarctic over the past three years, a team of Taiwanese scientists yesterday claimed to have discovered anti-inflammatory substances that far surpass standard medications.  One of the leading arguments for the preservation of the planet’s biodiversity is the protection of the vast and largely unexplored treasure house of pharmaceuticals residing in various habitats world wide.  We have no idea, what cures and medications exist in a rare orchid in the middle of New Guinea or in the venom of an as yet unknown spider in Brazil.  In this case it is urchins and sponges that deliver the goods. The research team, co-organized by the (Chinese) National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium, National Dong Hwa University, Chen Shiu University, and National Sun Yat-sen University, sends two people per year to the Antarctic between October and December, for the continent’s brief summer, to collect specimens. The team has brought over 600 biological specimens; including fish, molluscs, annelids, echinoderms, crustaceans, coelenterates, and poriferas, back to the lab in Taiwan from their excursions over the past three years. It was from the Antarctic soft sponges and the Antarctic sea urchins, from which anti-inflammatory substances of exceptional efficacy were extracted. Soong Bing-jun, a researcher at the marine biology museum, explained that the operation mechanism behind the newly discovered substances extracted from sea urchins and sponges is that they have the capacity to suppress the exertion of superoxide anions and a kind of protease that the human body naturally creates, which also causes inflammations. The team is currently analyzing the components of the anti-inflammatory substances in the hope of genetically modifying or even creating them from scratch. If the process is too complicated, the team will consider cultivating the sea urchins and sponges in Taiwan, Soong said. Who knows what else awaits discovery?