Scientists assume snakes and lizards may assist them discover new methods to forestall painful kidney stones and gout in folks. And all of it owes to an evolutionary trick.
Reptiles do not simply pee; they crystallize their waste to save lots of water.
Researchers who examined the stable urine of greater than 20 reptile species just lately reported within the Journal of the American Chemical Society that every one contained minuscule spheres product of uric acid.
The discovering underscores how reptiles have developed a singular method to retailer and excrete waste in a crystalline kind—findings that would someday result in new methods of treating human circumstances linked to uric acid construct up.
Whereas folks flush out extra nitrogen by urine as urea, uric acid and ammonia, reptiles remodel a few of those self same compounds into solids referred to as “urates.” These are then expelled by a gap referred to as the cloaca.
Whereas this crystal formation helps reptiles survive, the identical course of causes huge bother in people.
Uric acid ranges which are too excessive may cause crystals to construct up in joints (gout) or within the urinary tract (kidney stones).
Swift’s group used highly effective microscopes to find out how reptiles’ techniques differ from peoples’.
They discovered that species like pythons and Madagascan tree boas produce urates comprised of textured spheres not more than 0.0004 of an inch in dimension.
These microspheres from from even smaller nanocrystals of water and uric acid. And, researchers discovered, the uric acid helps flip poisonous ammonia right into a safer, stable kind.
Researchers theorize that uric acid might have the same protecting position in folks, however they should do extra work to make certain.
In any occasion, the findings counsel that the chemistry underlying reptile waste may someday result in improvement of higher methods to deal with uric acid-related ailments.
Extra data:
Alyssa M. Thornton et al, Uric Acid Monohydrate Nanocrystals: An Adaptable Platform for Nitrogen and Salt Administration in Reptiles, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2025). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5c10139
The Cleveland Clinic has extra about hyperuricemia (excessive uric acid).
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