FINDING POSSIBLE MEDICINES FROM HOT SPRINGS

canic microorganisms for biotech and pharma applications.

They researchers believe microbial and natural product exploration of volcanoes and hot springs, which are underexplored habitats, will undoubtedly yield a huge repertoire of novel and biologically active compounds.

Microbial natural products (NPs) have been prominent sources of drugs for a long history, especially for cancer and infectious diseases and hot springs and volcanic environments represent valuable sources of novel NPs, yet largely untapped and understudied.

Dr. Fleurdeliz Maglangit headed the study, entitled “Bioactive Compounds from Hot Spring and Volcanic Microorganisms.” The researchers surveyed the bioactive NPs from hot springs and volcanic microbes from 2006–2022, highlighting their chemical structures and biological potential.

“Microbial pathogens or microorganisms that are capable of producing diseases, quickly evolve new ways to combat drug therapy, more rapidly than the introduction of new drugs and drug candidates to the clinical pipeline, that’s why new sources of biologically active compounds effective against drug resistant cells are urgently needed,” said Dr. Maglangit.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization said resistant bacterial infections are now associated with nearly 4.95 million deaths per year. It also said that there’s now high levels of resistance in bacteria, causing life-threatening bloodstream infections, as well as increasing resistance to treatment in several bacteria causing common infections.

“Hot springs and volcanic environments have been shown to harbor high microbial biodiversity with unique metabolic profiles, yet they remained untapped and understudied for their production of novel druggable chemical entities,” Dr. Maglangit said.

The NPs isolated from hot springs and volcanic microbes represent structural diversity and novelty in comparison to the NPs isolated from terrestrial or marine habitats. The hot spring water temperatures provide favorable conditions for thermophilic microbes to generate a wide array of bioactive metabolites.

Hot springs are heated by geothermal heat – heat from the Earth’s interior. In volcanic areas, water may come into contact with very hot rock heated by magma. Hot springs in active volcanic zones may produce su-

ANTONIO V. FIGUEROA FAST BACKWARD

Likely the son of Faustino Villa Abrille (the chief of the Spanish guardia civil who was as-signed in Davao to assume as district governor), José Fernández de Villa-Abrille y Calibana, a Spanish major general who commanded the Seville garrison in Andalusia, Spain, was born in Davao City on December 15, 1878, the year his father took over the administration of the province.

(The elder Villa-Abrille was a well-loved figure; his kindness gained him the sympathy of the natives. Under his watch, the Moro settlements known as rancherias were organized. He also banned the practice of human sacrifice and slavery, and punished those who violated.)

Gen. Villa-Abrille entered the Academia Infanteria de Filipinas in Manila on July 14, 1896. After completing the short course, he was given the rank of second lieutenant on June 18, 1897, and participated in the Philippine campaign. Years after returning to his parents’ motherland, he was promoted to the rank of captain in 1905.

The general also participated in the Africa campaign where he was wounded. By 1930, he was already a brigadier general, and on February 15, 1933, he returned home to head a division. On May 20, 1935, he was chosen as commanding general of the second Organic Di-vision of the Army, in Seville City, and was in command of the territory of Andalusia in 1936 when a coup erupted. The putsch that led to the Spanish Civil War cost him his job. Aware of the plot of na-tionalist mutineers led by Gen. Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, he capitulated to the rebel forces.

Upon the instruction of perheated water.

Also called thermal springs, “they are inhabited by heat-loving microorganisms or thermophiles that can thrive at high temperatures,” according to a press release from the Department of Science and Technology, which funded the research through the National Research Council of the Philippines.

“The diversity of these organisms has been mainly attributed to temperature. Other factors include pH, dissolved hydrogen sulfide levels, biogeography, and geological history,” the press release further said.

Thermophiles have attracted significant interest in recent years for their production of heat-stable enzymes for biotechnological applications including industrial, agriculture, and medical processes.

Maglangit’s team recommended the conduct of more extensive experiments, whether in animal models or human subjects since some of the compounds that have been identified from hot springs and volcanic microbes have only been tested in vitro.

Hot springs have been shown to host a wide variety of heat-tolerating or thermophilic microorganisms, and among these are the hot springs in Mt. Makiling, Los Baños, Laguna, as well as the Wonder Lake hot springs, also in Laguna, and the two hot springs in BenguetBadekbek and Dalupirip.

Incidentally, the same research team is currently involved in a research project with Mainit Hot Springs located in Brgy. Montañeza, Malabuyoc, Cebu as the area of interest. Project ISAAC (Isolation, Screening, and Antimicrobial Activity of Compounds from Actinobacteria) aims to isolate, screen, and characterize thermophilic Actinobacteria for the production of bioactive compounds with the potential for drug development.

Right now, several thermophilic strains were isolated from Mainit Hot Springs with remarkable bioactivities against Gram-positive pathogens including Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis compared with gentamicin or oxytetracycline antibiotic control. Isolation and characterization of the bioactive compounds are currently underway in their laboratories.

“The microbial species and chemical diversity in hot springs and volcanic habitats are indeed indicative of future exploration,” the press release said. “These novel microorganisms will also likely produce novel druggable molecules.”

Spanish General Born In Davao

Gen. Quiepo, Gen. José Cuesta Monereo, commander of the Gen-eral Staff, planned a plot to mobilize 4,000 men to perform and consolidate the coup in Se-ville. Gen. Villa-Abrille was talked into joining by Gen. Quiepo, an old friend, but he turned it down, even denying there was any rebel activity in his area of responsibility.

On June 7, 1936, nearly all the commanding officers were on the rebel side and swore al-legiance to the Republic before Mariano Ruiz Funez, the minister for agriculture. Despite the development, José María Varela Renduelez, the civil governor, met with Gen. Villa-Abrille to tell him of the informed links between the soldiers in his garrison and the local right-wing ex-tremists. Still, the Davao-born officer rejected the connections.

In the talk, Gen. Vil- la-Abrille failed to inform the governor that Gen. Quiepo, who was staying nearby, had repeatedly invited him to join the putsch but he steadily rejected the overtures.

Curiously, Gen. Villa-Abrille and the officers under his command did not resist the coup nor oppose the oppressive activities that Manila-born Gen. Antonio Castejón Espinosa, an African campaigner like him, started in the districts of Seville. Even the instruction of Gov. Varela for Gen. Villa-Abrille to respond to the rebels was ignored.

On July 18, Gen. Quiepo and a few Army officers barged into Gen. Villa-Abrille’s office, demanding which side he was on, that of the Republic or the Nationalists. The Davao-born general hesitated. Despite his indifference and that of several commanders under his command, he was arrested and prosecuted. He was also threatened by Gen. Quiepo, who later took over his position as the most senior-ranked officer of the second Organic Division. With many of his men joining the rebellion, Gen. Villa-Abrille was discharged from the service in December 1936. And for his non-involvement in the popular coup, a court orga-nized by the Nationalists found him guilty and sentenced him to six years in prison in Febru-ary 1939. Seemingly unperturbed and composed, he completed his imprisonment in a villa near Cruz del Campo, in Seville, a military prison during the war and afterward. Soon after his release, he passed away in a Madrid pension in 1946. Nothing is known, though, whether the general, in his years of stay in Spain, ever mentioned a plan to visit his place of birth.

Pasig City — ScratchIt, instant ticket lottery game and scratch cards of Powerball Marketing and Logistics Corporation, announced the launch of its online game show and other online weekly shows hosted by long time comedian Long Mejia, recently.

The online game show PERA O SCRATCHIT was envisioned to provide entertainment and at the same time an opportunity for followers of the ScratchIt Facebook Page to win prizes of up to PhP200,000 weekly. Patterned after the actual act of “scratching cards” in PCSO’s lotto outlets, the game show allows contestants to choose among the various life-sized scratch cards available, Go Bananas, Go for Gold, Money Tree, and Red Hot 7’s guided by Long Mejia as the game master where they are made to choose between money or the expected prize hidden within the cards.

Powerball Marketing and Logistics Corporation General Manager said, “We have always shared the purpose of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office in providing help and assistance to our countrymen. And through these engaging and exciting infotainment programs like PERA o SCRATCHIT, we are able to provide much needed assistance to lucky followers who of course comes from all walks of life.”

Go added that one of the most recent winners of PERA o SCRATCHIT was a single mom of five children who works as an online seller and can now use the PhP200,000 to bury her child prop-