"From snake venom toxins to therapeutics- Cardiovascular examples" ElSevierb Journal, written by:
Cho Yeow Koh, R. Manjunatha Kini
Available online April 4, 2011
I have always been enthralled yet petrified of the idea of snake venom or getting bit by a venomous snake. When researching what exactly venom consists of, I realized research has shown that scientists have been able to turn some of these deadly toxins into a source of life-saving therapeutics! Many of these deadly toxins are being purified down into medical drugs able to treat patients with hypertension, thrombosis, and cancer. Whaaat!
So, as I was researching I found this article explaining different drugs formed from purified toxins in snake venom. The first successful example was discovered in 1975, a hypotensive agent, captopril. Researchers found brady-kinin-potentiating peptides isolated from venom from the Bothrops jararaca. They have also found that some types of snake venom can significantly lower the blood pressure in humans and experimental animals. They have found several different types of proteins with various molecular structures and different functions in bradykinin-potentiating peptides (BPP), natriuretic peptides (NP), and L-type Ca2+ channnel blockers.
The first report of BPPs was found in the B. jararaca in 1965 which found a certain peptide, called teprotide, that later became one of the best choices for treatment of hypertension. It showed that an ACE-independent pathway for regulation of blood pressure, which gave new options for developing anti-hypertensive agents. This could be a great step towards treating hypertension!
The first found member of the NP group was taken purified from the atrial tissue in 198 from Dendroaspis angusticeps. It was named the Dendroaspis natriuretic peptide (DNP). NPs are great regulators of the renal and cardiovascular systems, meaning it is possible they could be therapeutic options for such conditions as hypertension and heart failure. They found several different NPs from various snakes providing more hope to finding great ways for developing potent and specific cardiovascular agents.
L-type Ca2+ channels are high voltage-activated ion channels that control the amount of Ca2+ into cells. They found these channel blockers in snake venoms that include caiciseptine and FS2 toxins. These L-type Ca2+ blockers showed more ways of possibly transferring toxins into therapeutics.
They also found integrins that could seriously help in cancer pathology and tumor cell proliferation, angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis. Therefore, snake venom disintegrins could be a helpful way in developing anti-angiogenesis therapeutics.
So, is it crazy to think that snake venom, which contributes to millions of snakebites a year could possibly hold the key to such things as finding a cure for hypertension....or cancer? People are now being treated with ACE inhibitors, the class of drugs that originally came from toxins in snake venom!
This shows how beneficial venomous snakes could actually be to our society. Yes, they are extremely harmful treacherous snakes that can kill, but if we could use their venom to in return help millions of people, this could be a major advancement in Herpetology. We could have a new light in medicine and be able to take many different directions towards helping out mankind with reptiles.
1 comment:
What a cool concept!
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