Early in the decade, Darpa, the Pentagon's blue-sky research arm, started pouring money into an effort to make troops stronger, smarter, and tougher to kill. Along the way, Darpa-backed scientists may have just discovered a way to beat back to flu.
It's the latest turn in a Pentagon program that has already gone in a number of counterintuitive directions. With Darpa funds, biochemist Mark Roth turned rodents into virtual zombies.
Biologist Craig Heller created a "glove" that lets wearers endure extreme heat, and cold. Veterinarian Michael Davis examined how sled dogs' amazing endurance might be translated into humans. Microbiologists at the Agricultural
Research Service (ARS)
sorted through swine manure, to figure out how pigs digest what humans usually can't: cellulose, the main fibrous part of plants. Geneticist Jasper Rine investigated how "genetic variation" might affect troops' "peak and sustainable performance levels." Oxford University biochemists looked for ways to take mitochondria -- the body's powerhouses, which ordinarily turn sugars into energy -- and put them on the equivalent of the Atkins diet, instead.
University of South
Carolina and Clemson University researchers, funded by Darpa, gave mice quercetin, a naturally occurring substance found in fruits and vegetables, and discovered that the rodents were "less likely to contract the flu," according to a statement from the
American Physiological Society. "The study also found that stressful exercise increased the susceptibility of mice to the flu, but quercetin canceled out that negative effect."
If quercetin can do the same in humans, soldiers could be able to go through grueling training regimes or battlefield conditions, with a reduced chance of getting sick.
Mice tend to get upper respiratory illnesses when they exercise a bunch. And that was certainly the case during the experiments from the South Carolina and Clemson team, lead by physiologist J. Mark Davis.
The scientists put the rodents on treadmills, and exposed 'em to a common flu virus, H1N1. The mice that exercised had a 91% chance of developing the flu, versus a 63% chance for the control group. Those mice also got sick much sooner -- 6.9 days versus 12.4 days.
But Davis' crew gave some of the rodents quercetin. The researchers noticed that "mice that exercised and took quercetin had nearly the same rate of illness as those that did not exercise. In other words, quercetin canceled out the negative effect of stressful exercise," the American Physiological Society notes. Quercetin also
"had protective effects for the mice that did not exercise."
Darpa has also repeatedly honed in on quercetin, during its peak soldier performance program. Pathologist Lan Bo Chen searched for something that would boost the overall production of mitochondria, regardless of what the cellular powerhouses consumed. Eventually, he blended quercetin with a B-vitamin cocktail; it sent mitochondria production skyrocketing in lab rats, tripling the animals'
endurance. Then, the drink was given to high-performance cyclists in a
series of trials at Pepperdine University. The results weren't nearly as dramatic –
just an average three percent improvement in a 30 kilometer ride. But considering these athletes' races are often decided by tenths of a second, the study was considered a major breakthrough.
*[Photos: Oregon.gov; U.S. Army Europe] *
ALSO:
- Top Pentagon Scientists Fear Brain-Modified Foes
- Stronger, Tougher, Faster: Building Next-Gen G.I.s
- Sled Dogs' Secret to Peak Soldier Performance
- Army Seeks Fountain of Youth in Body's Powerhouses
- Zombie Mouse Master Extends Lifespans
- Israel Mulls Viagra-Style Drugs to Keep Pilots Up
- Supercharging Soldiers' Cells
- Squirrel = Super Soldier?
- Pig Manure Key to Soldier Chow?
- "Kill Proof," Animal-Esque Soldiers: DARPA Goal
- No "Go Pills"
- Darpa Chief Speaks
