Giant Thai Water Bug Provides Insights To Human Heart Disease

Researchers discovered that a Thai water bug can give understanding about human heart disease, particularly on how the heart works and how sometimes it fails. The Thai water bug or also known as lethocerus indicus is an edible insect in various Southeast Asian cuisines.

The study was printed in Science Advances. It was led by Professor of Biological Science Kenneth Taylor and colleagues, according to Phys.Org.

The researchers said that that insect's flight muscle and a mammal's heart beat rhythmically. They studied the flight muscles of the giant water bug as a way to better comprehend how the human heart works. They took the first three-dimensional image of a tiny filament of an essential muscle of the Thai water bug that it uses to fly using an electron microscope. This filament contains a protein known as myosin that creates the power needed to contract muscles. It indicates the individual molecules in the filament in a relaxed state for the first time. This is needed to re-extend muscles.

The team enabled to examined the filament structure. They discovered that all muscles have two types of filaments namely the myosin and the actin. The myosin has two parts, which are the molecular motor and a very long rod. These rods shape the filament backbone. Once the muscle contracted, the molecular motors on the myosin filament take and pull on the actin filaments that causes the shortening of muscles. Meanwhile, the myosin rods in the backbone must sustain the force.

Professor Taylor said that the image could provide answers to a lot of questions about myosin filaments that scientists have been wondering about for decades. He further said that the discovery is more significant because mutations in myosin can cause cardiomyopathy, which is a disease of the heart muscle. He continued that about one-third of myosin mutations that causes cardiomyopathies occur in the rod. "Many of these cardiomyopathy mutations may be understandable in terms of flawed muscle relaxation." Prof. Taylor hopes that this discovery could lead to new treatments for cardiomyopathy in the time to come.

Lethocerus indicus or also known as giant water bug can be found in Southeast China, southeast China, New Guinea, Korea and Ryukyu islands. Its flight muscles taste like the sweet scallops or shrimp. It is about 6.5 cm to 8 cm (2,6 and 3.1 in) long.