The United Nations Development Program report, “How our health depends on biodiversity,” confirms that polar bears have naturally been able to develop many nature-based solutions to many diseases that affect millions of people around the world, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. , osteoporosis due to immobility, and toxicity from renal failure.
Coral reefs and “morphine”
Another example of the wide-ranging services granted by nature to humanity is represented by coral reefs, which are sometimes called “sea rainforests” because of the density of their biodiversity. Among the countless inhabitants of these reefs are conical shells, which are molluscs. A predator that hunts with arrows, and provides about 200 different toxic compounds, which are used in the production of many drugs, foremost among which are painkillers, including the drug “Ziconotide”, which is characterized by being more powerful than “morphine” by a thousand times, and it also avoids the effects of endurance and dependence that can It is caused by substances produced from the “opium” plant.
And while the report indicated that only 6 species were examined, out of about 700 species of that cone snail, and only 100 species were studied out of the thousands of potential unique compounds carried by these marine species, it pointed out that the natural systems in which these mollusks live Coral reef colonies are increasingly deteriorating, threatening the extinction of many species that live on them.
The report stressed that the provision of chemical compounds is not the only thing that makes biodiversity vital to human health, as an amazing group of species contributed to revolutionizing medical knowledge, and “zebrafish” have always been a reference in knowledge of how organs are formed, especially the heart, as the worm played Microscopic roundworms play a major role in understanding the disease, “programmed cell death”, which not only regulates the growth of organs, but can cause cancer when it is disrupted. Fruit flies, mainly bacterial species, are also used in research that led to the mapping of the human “genome”.
The report, How Our Health Depends on Biodiversity, warns that there may be many undiscovered species, such as scientific laboratory animals, that possess traits that make them particularly suitable for studying and treating human diseases, and if we lose these species, their secrets will be lost with them.
