The following information was gathered on the Internet by searching for Venom and it’s medical uses.

 

Syn-Ake

The Wagler’s Temple Viper (Tropidolaemus wagleri) unknowingly has given scientists a new  method to fight wrinkles. A Swiss company has developed a venom-inspired product that fights wrinkles. According to it’s manufacturer, Phentapharm, the synthetic tripeptide mimics the neurological effect of a peptide found in the Temple Viper’s venom.  Syn-Ake paralyses muscles that cause facial creases such as expression lines by blocking nerve signals that tell muscles to contract. The discovery is now used in several anti-aging cosmetic products sold here in the U.S. and U.K. and comes in a glycerin-based solution. Although it is rather pricey, with less than 1 fluid ounce selling for more than $100, several retailers claim support from celebrity clientele. The report: “it makes their skin tingle”.

For more information visit the companies web site at pentapharm.com

 

 

Gila Monster: Attacking Type 2 Diabetes

One of only two species of venomous lizards, the Gila monster is native to southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Unlike other deadly critters, Gila monsters don’t inject venom directly into their victims. Instead, poison oozes from the lizard’s teeth into the open wounds of its prey, usually while the Gila monster is chewing. Because of this, human fatalities from Gila monster bites are rare, but a bite can cause intense pain, nausea, swelling, fatigue, dizziness, and chills – none of which is particularly fun. In addition to all those nasty side effects, Gila monster venom stimulates insulin production and slows down glucose production, which is great news for diabetics. Byetta, a drug manufactured by Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Company to treat Type 2 diabetes, uses a manufactured form of Gila monster venom as its main ingredient. Approved by the FDA in April of 2005, Byetta is injected before meals to help their bodies produce the right amount of insulin at the right time –the best part being that it doesn’t cause the moodswings often associated with traditional insulin regimens.

 

Jararaca Vipers: Lower Blood Pressure

Most vipers are scary enough as it is, but jararaca vipers are venomous to boot. But what’s truly fascinating is the unique way their venom works. Unlike a traditional toxin, viper venom functions by preventing the blood from clotting, meaning the snakes actually kill their victims by causing them to bleed to death. Lucky for us, slow-clotting blood isn’t always a bad thing. Researchers have found that small doses of viper venom can prevent arteries from hardening, thus stopping the kinds of blood clots that commonly occur in cardiac patients. In fact jararaca viper venom (or at least a synthesized version of it) is a key ingredient in most of today’s ACE inhibitors. Introduced in 1981, ACE inhibitors work by slowing down the body’s angiotenzin enzumy ACE). When left untreated, the enzyme can produce a peptide that causes muscle constriction around blood vessels. That kind of constriction can set off a chain reaction whereby a person’s blood vessels narrow and his or her blood pressure shoots through the roof, leading to greater risk of heart attack and other ailments. Because the ACE inhibitors can stop this domino effect, they’re frequently used to treat millions of men and women with high blood pressure.

 

Poison Dart Frogs: The Heart-Healthy Choice

You know an animal is bad news when its sweat was once considered a state-of-the-art military technology. Meet the poison dart frog, which secretes a highly dangerous neurotoxin, called batrachotoxin, through its pores. In fact, various Latin American tribes used to collect the stuff (carefully) to poison the tips of their arrows for hunting and warfare. Interestingly, however, the frogs don’t produce their own toxin. They get it from eating insects that most likely picked up the poison from the plants they consume. The same frogs, if raised in a laboratory rather than the rain forest, aren’t poisonous at all.out of cardiac arrest and potentially save lives. And because it also deadens nerve endings, batrachotoxin has potential as an ingredient in anesthetics. Studies into other uses of the toxin are still in the early stages, but the frog’s medical benefits bolster the argument for preserving the rainforest. Most scientists believe we’ve only just begun to grasp the pharma possibilities of some of the world’s rarest and deadliest creatures. Before batrachotoxin stops your heart, its speeds it up. Consequently, medical experts believe it might be possible to tweak elements of the frog’s toxin to bring patient.

 

Snake Venom for Breast Cancer?

 A health report by a Florida television station has created a flurry of attention about a controversial approach to treating breast cancer-snake venom. WKMG News in Orlando recently did a story on Bill Haast, a 90-year-old researcher who has spent a career studying venoms from some of the world’s most poisonous snakes. Haast made a mark in polio research when he discovered that cobra venom affected the same nerve endings as the polio virus. As a result, he helped develop the medicine that is used today to treat the disease.

Recently Haast has turned his attention to copperhead snake venom and its potential impact for treating breast cancer. He refers in the interview to “articles by the hundreds, stories where people were improving miraculously almost.” However, he goes on to acknowledge that “red tape” and the Food and Drug Administration have stymied his research. Interestingly enough, in a presentation at the 1998 annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, Francis Markland, Ph.D. of the University of Southern California School of Medicine reported on his study of a specific protein in copperhead snake venom that may indeed have an impact on tumor growth.

Markland isolated the protein contortrostatin (CN) from purified snake venom and injected it into mice implanted with human breast cancer cells. He found a 60-70 percent reduction in the growth rate of the breast tumors and a 90 percent reduction in tumor metastases (spread) to the lungs.

CN belongs to a class of proteins known as disintegrins, so-named because they disrupt the function of certain other proteins called integrins, which are located on the surface of cells. Integrins are involved in the cell adhesion process.

Markland said that CN appears to inhibit the ability of breast cancer cells to adhere to and invade normal cells in the surrounding tissue. CN also seems to restrict new blood vessel development in tumors, thus starving them of the nutrients they need to grow.

 

Snake Venom Extract Fights Stroke

An experimental drug derived from the venom of the feared Malayan pit viper shows promise for the treatment of stroke, an analysis of six studies involving over 4,000 stroke victims suggests. The drug, known as Viprinex, may double the time window during which victims can be treated following the onset of symptoms, researchers say.

The drug, also known by the generic name ancrod, is designed to help people who suffer an acute ischemic stroke, the most common type. It occurs when blood flow to an area of the brain is compromised by a blood clot. This leads to the death of brain cells and brain damage. Currently, the clot-buster t-PA can be used for ischemic stroke, but time is of the essence: It has to be administered in the first three hours after symptoms strike.

Research suggests Viprinex can be given up to six hours out, says study head Bart M. Demaerschalk, MD, an assistant professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz. “By expanding the window beyond three hours and up to six hours, Viprinex would hopefully expand the number of people that can be treated for acute ischemic stroke,” says American Stroke Association spokesman Ralph Sacco, MD.

Viprinex packs a triple punch against stroke, preventing new clots from forming, breaking down existing clots, and thinning out the blood, thereby improving blood flow to the brain. It was discovered when doctors found that the blood of people who had been bitten by the Malayan pit viper did not clot normally for several days afterward.

Now, biotech researchers milk the venom from vipers raised on a snake farm in Germany, Demaerschalk says.

 

Using Venomous Snakes to cure Alzheimers

A chemist at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) is looking for unusual structures in snake venom and plans to prove their medical effectiveness.

What in the 1950s led to the development of Captopril, a drug for the treatment of hypertension, is being continued in an interesting new chapter with the analysis of venom from South American pit vipers and tropical rattlesnakes.
“We receive the snake venom as a yellow crystalline powder in ampules directly from the Instituto Butantan in São Paulo, Brazil. That is a well-known scientific institution, also popular with tourists, which studies some of the most poisonous snake species in the world,” explains Martina Marchetti, assistant professor at the Institute for Chemical Technologies and Analytics at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna).

Her investigations focus on the venoms of four different pit vipers (Bothrops) as well as a tropical rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus terrificus). All five species are native to South America. They are among the most aggressive snake varieties there. Every year in South America, 2.5 million people are bitten by snakes. About 100,000 die as a result.

Marchetti analyzes the snake venoms by various methods. She and her coworkers use lab-on-a-chip technology to determine the composition of the toxins and analyze peptide chains (linear sequences of amino acids). The structures of individual members of these chains are then analyzed using tandem mass spectrometry. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis offers another option for separating samples by molecular weight and pH.
According to Marchetti, “Not every snake venom is the same. Time and again we encounter unusual new structures. The goal of our research is to find out why individual components of the venom act in a particular way and what they may have to offer to the pharmaceutical industry.”

A deliberately administered toxic effect in the right amount can actually be beneficial to human health. Snake toxins have a very broad field of potential use, including antibacterial applications, cell growth inhibition, nerve stimulation, blood thinning and clotting. Their effects are also being tested for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Novel Protein from King Cobra as Drug Discovery

ScienceDaily (Mar. 9, 2010) — The King Cobra continues to weave its charm with researchers identifying a protein in its venom with the potential for new drug discovery and to advance understanding of disease mechanisms. The novel protein named haditoxin has been described in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (March 12, 2010).

Haditoxin was discovered in Professor Manjunatha Kini’s laboratory at the National University of Singapore. Co-author of the paper Dr S. Niru Nirthanan, now at Griffith University on the Gold Coast, has characterised the pharmacological actions of haditoxin.

Dr Nirthanan said that haditoxin was structurally unique and therefore expected to have unique pharmacological properties.

“This toxin is like a conjoined twin. It is a relatively large complex made up of two identical protein molecules known as three-finger toxins linked together.”

“We know that the family of three-finger toxins display diverse biological actions on the human nervous system, cardiovascular system and blood clotting. Some have directly led to the development of compounds with potent analgesic and blood pressure reducing properties — so it is likely that haditoxin in its ‘conjoined twin’ state or as individual components will offer us more novel insights,” he said.

Dr Nirthanan, a former clinician who has research interests in pharmacology and neurobiology, said many common drugs such as the widely prescribed blood pressure medication Captopril and anti-clotting drug Eptifibatide have been developed from snake and other animal venoms.

“Researchers have been studying King Cobra venom for over 50 years and yet we are still identifying new compounds. It is a complex cocktail of biological molecules that can change composition depending on the environment, the season or even the snake’s diet.”

The venom primarily acts on neurotransmitter receptors which regulate communication between nerve cells or between nerves and muscles, resulting in symptoms such as paralysis and respiratory failure. /more

He said that from a clinical perspective, the worldwide burden of snakebite is high with up to 125,000 preventable deaths each year and significant public health costs associated with snakebite treatment.

“We may be able to improve management of snakebite as we better understand the mechanism of action of these venoms. However, my research interest is in the therapeutic and pharmacological potential of venom toxins.”

While not every new toxin will convert directly into a clinically useful drug, he said there was potential for haditoxin to be a lead compound or template from which to design other drugs. “Because of the high specificity of these toxins, haditoxin may also be useful as a ‘molecular probe’ which will help us study neurotransmitter receptors and their role in disease.”

These receptors are important in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases as well as in schizophrenia, anxiety and depressive disorders and nicotine addiction.

The haditoxin research was conducted by an international team from the National University of Singapore, Griffith University and University of Geneva.