What are the 20 Stunning Facts About Why The Deadliest Animal Venom Are Turning Into Life Giving Medicines

Introduction:

What is Venom?

Venom is actually a protein called peptide, which is secreted from the venom gland present in the body of animals, generally known to be poisonous.

What is Venomics?

Venomics is a new term used nowadays for the large-scale study of some of the deadliest venom obtained from animals, that people want to keep away from. To name them, the obvious and the deadliest animal, the one that flashes through our mind, the very moment we hear about poisonous animals, is the snakes around the world. As dangerous as the King cobra, Mamba, Vipers etc. However, what is most interesting is that – list is incomplete without the inclusion of bees, cone snails, spiders, scorpions, other reptiles, fishes, corals etc.

20 Facts About Why The Deadliest Animal Venom Are Turning Into Life Giving Medicines:

What is the difference between Poison and Venom: The basic difference is that poison can enter the body of the prey through food or if the prey comes in contact with the skin of a poisonous animal. Whereas, an animal with venom, attacks the prey or any human for food, or as a defensive mechanism in order to kill or paralyze them by using specific parts present in their body, like fangs, stingers or bites. These parts are connected to specific glands, present inside their body, that secrete a substance called venom. And hence these animals are also called venomous animals. These attacks always leave marks or wound through which the venom is transmitted into the prey's body. So poison can affect anybody if they have consumed poisonous food or their body has touched any poisonous animal.
How a venom effects the human body or a prey: Venom can either spoil blood or a act as a neurotoxin, that affects the nervous system. In other words, the proteins present in the venom, known as peptides, enter the bloodstream or the nervous system of the human body or the prey's body. If animal venom enters the bloodstream, it has immense capability to clog the blood, causing it to tear the blood vessels, that could cause internal and external bleeding and this can kill the victim in less than half an hour, if the animal has a strong venom, for example snakes.
As neurotoxin, venom can enter the nervous system and start paralyzing the victim’s body to the extent that it shuts down all the normal functions, causing loss of breath. This eventually leads to death of the victim, if timely and appropriate medication is not available. Venom can raise or drop the blood pressure, causing heart attack. It depends on how venomous is the animal.
The most important and interesting fact is: Then how these deadly toxins, produced from some of the most dangerous animals in the world, be it snakes, spiders, bees, fishes etc.- find their way to big laboratories and being tested by experts, to find if they are beneficial for health.
Few of us know about Zoltan Takacs, a toxicologist and adventurer, who is specialized in snake venom. He has been experimenting with numerous kinds of poisons and venom of animals, existing around the globe, in different kinds of weather conditions, terrains, forests and remote villages. He has now introduced 'Venom Bank', to help experts from different countries across the world to submit any animal venom, they think, have the potential to be used as medicines.
An animal whose venom is used from the ancient times and even today is the snake venom. Snake venom has many health benefits. It is used from the ancient age for the treatment of deadly diseases like leprosy and smallpox.
Snake venom also finds its application to treat and heal fatal wounds and injuries because the proteins present in the venom, known as peptides, have the ability to get glued to specific kind of proteins present in the human body, turning into a substance that prevents cells from breaking away. In this way, it promotes clotting of the blood and helps to heal wounds.
A new study in the University of Queensland, in the United Kingdom, has led to the development of a venom gel, which comes from the most poisonous snakes, that can kill a human in less than an hour. The research used the same mechanism of binding the proteins present in the venom and that of the human body. This research is a great initiative in preventing people from dying due to heavy blood loss in accidents or in military combat operations.
From ancient times, snake venom is used to for therapeutic purposes. It was first studied just for the treatment of snake-bites. The ancient medical experts discovered that the poison of one snake may have toxins, that are different from the other snakes. Therefore, the venom of one snake can heal a human, who is attacked by some other snake. In other words, snake venom can act as an antidote or anti-venom, that can save people from deadly snake bites. Though it is unfortunate that each year 5 million people get killed due to snake bites, due to inappropriate and timely reach of medical services.
The peptide in the venom of Pit viper, a snake found in Brazil (Bothrops jararaca), has been the most effective component used in an Angiotensin converting enzyme or ACE inhibitor, which is used to help control hypertension. The name of the medicine is Captopril. This medicine is also used to reduce the risk of heart failure. Pit viper venom has saved more human lives than any other animal venom in the past few decades.
Pygmy rattlesnake has a potent venom that stops blood from clotting, and hence a specific toxin in the venom finds its use in a medicine named Eptifibatide. This stops cells in the blood from clotting and prevents heart attacks and strokes. A medicine named Tirofiban derived from saw-scaled viper works the same way.
The Eastern green mamba is also being a subject of research, as the peptide released from its venom can be developed into a medicine related to heart disease.
Scorpions: the deadly Deathstalker and other scorpions have venom which has a substance known as Chlorotoxin, that is used to diagnose cancers and for treating tumors. The cost of a drop of Chlorotoxin is almost $130. The only reason is that, this substance can highlight the tumors in the brain or spine, by blending up with the specific cancer cells. This makes it easy for the medical experts to distinguish them and decimate them completely, which otherwise may remain in traces in the affected area, even after the surgery. This happens because of the difficulty faced by medical experts to separate the abnormal cells that bind with the healthy ones in the affected area of the human body.
The saliva of the Gila lizard from South America has a hormone in its venom that caught the interest of Daniel Drucker, a scientist and endocrinologist, for its research. Finally, a synthetic version of the same hormone was developed as a medicine to control type-2 diabetes. With that, the Gila venom gave way to researchers to study it for weight loss. As people and animals, on this drug for diabetes, started to lose weight. Finally, in 2021, another effective drug came up by the name of Semaglutide, developed on the basis of the structure of the Gila lizard venom, and was approved by food and drug administration FDA, in the US. It is said to have helped many with threatening levels of obesity. It can provide 15% weight loss, which is a remarkable medical discovery in the treatment of obesity.
The bee venom contains a peptide called melittin. According to a research, gold nanoparticles that carry melittin can attack the protection shield of the HIV, keeping normal cells unaffected in the human body. It is also a potential medicine to prevent HIV transmission. Apart from the medical uses of this venom, it is also used in anti-wrinkle cosmetics.
Spider venom peptides have a unique ICK motif, a kind of protein structure, which makes them very stable both thermally and biologically, and has the potential to be used as painkillers for humans. Not just humans, they are also being a subject of research as environment friendly bio insecticides.
The brown spider (Loxosceles), have toxins that are identified to have biologically active molecules, that have the potential to support the development of new chemicals, that can contribute to new drug discovery for diseases like tumors, agricultural insecticides, painkillers and antigens.
The beautiful looking marine cone snails have a peptide known as Conotoxin. Many peptides have been already recognized by researchers for therapeutic uses for pain, cardiac diseases, epilepsy and psychological issues. A potential medicine from these fish eating animals, is a kind of insulin that works a lot faster when compared to the insulin found in human body.
Another medicine in use is Zinconide(Prialt) that comes from marine cone snails. It is more powerful than morphine, and used as a painkiller that is non-addictive in nature. It must be injected into the spinal fluid directly, as it does not cross the blood-brain barrier system (BBB). BBB system is a kind of cells that prevents the brain from toxins in the blood stream and filters harmful toxins from the brain.
Researchers are studying this Conotoxin peptide from marine cone snails, as an alternative to opioid based medicines. Excess of opioid based medicines are detrimental, In the US, almost 42,000 people were killed in 2016, due to Opioid Crisis. But research becomes a success only when the peptide component can cross the blood-brain barrier system. Opioids come from poppy seeds. They include morphine, heroin, Fentanyl etc. If any opioid based compound or medicine exceeds its prescribed amount or time-period, they act like narcotics to humans. If misused or its over-dosage is left unchecked, that may cause death.

CONCLUSION:

With the development of newly equipped research laboratories, the smallest of the animals could be studies for the therapeutic uses of their venom. According to scientists and experts in this field, venom have so many qualities, like they can clot the blood, or even prevent it from clotting, attack the nervous system, bring down sugar levels, bind up with cells of the body of the prey to defend itself or consume it, and hence, they bring a huge potential to declot blood vessels in the human body, to help control blood sugar, to highlight cancers and tumors, work as agricultural insecticides and there is much more to explore. There is a world of venomous animals whose venom have not been studied yet. With more and more collection of peptides and their research may give great answers to the medical issues that are still said to have no cure.