THE TRIBUNE (Chandigarh, India) 10 February 06 Life-saving venom (Radhakrishna Rao)
Man has always associated venom with suffering and death. But for the medical researchers and drug designers, venom extracted from the poisonous plants and animals is veritable goldmine from which to develop a variety of life-sustaining drugs.
No wonder then that drugs and pharmaceutical giants across the world are in constant search of venom in the depths of forests and oceans. For instance, a poisonous secretion extracted from a species of toad from the jungles of Amazon is being studied to develop drugs for a variety of disorders afflicting the humanity.
For many years, researchers have been demonstrating that toxin and its harmless fragment strengthen the neural cells and protect them from external invasions. This implies that it has a clear-cut neuroprotective effect that prevents the death of neurons faced with aggressive situations.
Most importantly, the deadly snake venom has proved to be a big life saver by being an important ingredient in many vital drugs and vaccines. No wonder, snake venom is considered costlier than the gold.
Snake venom happens to be the most significant component of the anti- serum vaccine used to treat snake bite cases.
In India, around 300,000 cases of snake bites are reported each year. Unfortunately, 10 per cent of the victims die due to the lack of timely treatment. The number of snake bite cases in India could be more since many cases in the remote rural parts of the country go unreported.
The Mumbai-based Haffkin Institute and the Bangalore-based Vittal Mallya Scientific Research Foundation are among the premier institutions in the country involved in the development of snake bite vaccine.
In its natural state, the snake venom happens to be a prey immobilising chemical that is expelled from the poison glands. Normally, the venom is made up of water, protein, protein derivatives and some inorganic salts. According to researchers, the most beneficial facet of snake venom lies in its capacity to produce antivenin which helps to counter the effects of snake bite. Meanwhile, research efforts are on to use snake venom to develop drugs meant for combating cardiac disruptions. Significantly, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already given a green signal to "intergrilin" — a drug formulated using rattle snake venom for treating cases of cardiac arrest. In studies, Intergrilin has shown to decrease the number of heart attacks and death among people affected by chest pain or unstable angina. Researchers are also exploring the snake venom to develop anti-coagulant drugs capable of helping people recover from the devastating after-effects of a stroke.
On another front, Dr Francies Markland, a Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, says that snake venom could play a positive role in controlling breast cancer. For in the preliminary studies carried out by researchers, it has been found that protein extracted from the venom of a type of viper could slow down the growth process of tumours in mice that carried human breast cancer cells. Similarly, a drug formulation designed from out of a type of pit viper has been found to be useful in treating cases of kidney disorders, high blood pressure and heart failures.
On the other hand, researchers are optimistic that enzymes from cobra venom could be exploited to treat old age, degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Similarly, the possibility of developing drugs for treating Osteoporosis using viper venom is very much on the cards.
Cone snail is yet another potential source of toxin for developing drugs to treat that are normally not amenable to treatment by conventional drugs. Indeed, studies carried out by a team of Melbourne-based researchers have gone to show that cone snail toxin has the potential for easing pain and also providing an effective treatment for neuropathic pain associated with diabetes. Incidentally, neuropathic pain is the most difficult form to treat because it responds poorly to the available pain killers such as morphin and aspirin.
Tetanus toxin is yet another beneficial form of venom in developing drugs. Researchers have found tetanus toxin to be effective in tackling depression, anxiety and anorexia. In addition, it is also known to slow down the progress of degenerative disorders like Parkinson’s.
Researchers from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Institute of Neuroscience at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in Spain have also used tetanus toxin for treating disorders arising out of the muscular contraction. During the experiments, researchers found that the harmless portion of the tetanus toxin inhibits serotonin from being transported through synaptic membrane and this quality makes the tetanus poison an excellent substance with which to develop drugs for treating a variety of disorders.
And now who says venom is a harmful and deadly substance?
Life-saving venom