A coral reef offers the opportunity for a spot of snorkelling on your holiday but they have a far greater role on the planet than allowing humans something to gawp at with a piece of rubber shoved in their mouth. Occupying less than one quarter of one per cent of the marine environment, coral reefs are home to more than 25 per cent of all known marine fish species. If you count only the economic value of fisheries, tourism, and shoreline protection, the costs of losing one kilometre of coral reef ranges between US$137,000 to US$1,200,000 over a 25-year period according to the World Resources Institute. A new study suggests that you can add a bit more to that value because coral might offer a significant medical resource.
Harvesting ocean organisms for medicinal purposes, called marine bioprospecting, has accelerated in recent years as researchers seek new antibiotics and cancer treatments. There are currently around 25 clinical trials underway using marine life like bacteria, sponges, sea slugs, and sea squirts. Now you can add coral to the list as it may offer a preventative effect against HIV infection.
Researchers from the Australian National Cancer Institute screened thousands of natural product extracts from their biological database and found that a protein made by feathery corals found off the north coast of Australia may be useful against HIV. The protein is but belongs to a class of proteins called cnidarins and it appears to bind to the HIV virus and stop it attaching to cells in the immune system (T cells). No other protein has yet been able to do this. Additionally, the cnidarin protein is able to do this at remarkably low concentrations being effective at levels as low as one billionth of a gram.
More extensive testing needs to be done but the researchers believe the protein could be a useful inclusion in anti-HIV gels and lubricants. This kind of discovery of course, should come with a warning.
According to the World Wildlife Fund we have already lost 27 per cent of the world\’s coral reefs. If present rates of destruction are allowed to continue, 60 per cent of the world\’s coral reefs will be destroyed over the next 30 years. Sustainably managed coral reefs can yield an average of 15 tonnes of fish and other seafood per square kilometre each year. News like this about coral’s potential benefits for HIV prevention is not an excuse to further ravage our reefs. Rather it is a reminder that our reefs are a bountiful, but delicate, resource and if we properly manage and preserve these natural wonders then our partnership with them can yield mutual benefits.
