Venom has been considered as a danger and whenever we hear that name, it makes us stand startled.
However deadly venom could be even used as medicine according to latest research
2. • Evolutionarily, humans are scared of
creepy-crawlers and poisonous things.
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3. • However, science shows that the venoms of
the natural world can actually be harvested
as potential medicinal treatments and cures.
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4. • Venom—the stuff that drips from the fangs
and stingers of creatures is the Nature’s
most efficient killer.
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5. • Venom is exquisitely honed to stop a body in
its tracks.
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6. • The molecules may have different targets
and effects, but they work synergistically for
the mightiest punch
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7. Mode of action of venoms
• neurotoxic (nerve toxins)
• haemotoxic (blood toxins),
• necrotising (death of tissue), and
• anticoagulant (preventing the blood from
clotting)
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8. Venom Vs Poison
If you bite it and die, it is poisonous; if it
bites you and you die, it is venomous !!!
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9. • The properties that make venom deadly are
also what make it so valuable for medicine.
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10. I. Many venom toxins target the same
molecules that need to be controlled to
treat diseases.
II. Venom works fast and is highly specific.
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11. • More than 100,000 animals have evolved to
produce venom.
• snakes, scorpions, spiders, a few lizards, bees, sea
creatures such as octopuses, numerous species of
fish, and cone snails.
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12. • Venom and its components emerged
independently, again and again, in
different animal groups
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13. • Not all venom kills, of course—bees have it
as a nonlethal defense.
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14. Pain killers
• Since the resurgence of opioid-based
medications to treat pain in the 1990s, the
drugs have become the primary source of
fatal overdoses in many countries.
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15. • Derived from the opium poppy, opioids
alleviate pain by binding to opioid receptors
in the brain.
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Papaver somniferum
16. • Along with pain relief, opioids also pose a risk
of addiction and drug tolerance.
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17. • Animal toxins can alleviate chronic pain
without inducing tolerance or addiction
because they target parts of the nervous
system outside the brain.
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18. Pain
• A pain signal is just our body’s way of
alerting us to damage in your cells.
• Cells respond to a threat by leaking a
small sodium-ion charge through a pore in
the cell membrane.
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19. • Which is known as voltage-gated sodium channel
1.7, or Nav 1.7 present at the endings of pain-
sensing nerves
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20. • People who lack Nav 1.7 channels due to a
naturally-occurring genetic mutation are
unable to experience pain,
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21. • So blocking this channel could potentially
help us to switch off pain in people with
normal pain pathways,
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22. • “Without [sodium channel] 1.7, the pain
signals simply don’t get amplified to a level to
be sent up to the spinal cord and up to the
brain,” so the brain never knows about it
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23. • Most drugs on the market today have
organic compunds so minute that they can
be ingested and pass more easily through
cell membranes however they are less
selective.
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24. • Venom-based peptides — short chains of
amino acids — are better at being selective
than small molecules.
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25. • Not just any venomous creature will do to
create sodium channel blockers.
• The animals that are solely focused on are
those that have neurotoxin venoms.
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26. • Snake and reptile venoms typically don’t work
for this type of research because most of them
function as hemotoxins and target components of
the cardiovascular system.
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28. • The search for safer, more effective and
non-addictive painkillers has led scientists
to an unlikely source: tarantula venom,
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29. • A single compound found in the venom of the
Peruvian green velvet tarantula,
• has been found to inhibit Nav 1.7 pain
receptor on the membrane of neuronal cells.
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30. • Spiders don’t have a monopoly on promising
peptides, though.
• For millennia, the Chinese have made use of the
medicinal properties of scorpion venom for
chronic pain and a host of other ailments.
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31. • Research shows that scorpion venom, too, can be
a potent sodium channel blocker.
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32. • Recently a peptide from the venom of the
Chinese red-headed centipede acted as a
more potent painkiller than morphine.
http://www.scmp.com/tech/science-research/article/1867184/one-mans-poison-another-
mans-pleasure-chinese-team-finds-new
http://www.sci-news.com/medicine/science-venom-chinese-centipede-painkiller-morphine-
01430.html
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33. • However the drawback here is that unlike
tarantulas ;Centipedes and scorpions are
quite deadly and cannot provide with
sufficient venom.
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34. • cone snails are small, tropical marine snails
whose harpoonlike hook snags and
paralyzes fish.
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35. • The chemical components of the snail
toxins, which, in rare cases, can cause
human fatalities.
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36. • Conotoxins in snail venom shut down nerve
cell processes—which, it turns out, is an
effective way to mask pain in people with
late-stage cancer.
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37. • conotoxins, target voltage-gated calcium
channels,which handle communication between
pain-sensing neurons and the brain.
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38. • By 2004, the drug companies Neurex and Elan
had developed an alternative to morphine called
Prialt, or ziconotide, which makes use of this
toxin.
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39. • However this drug has dose-limiting side
effects and can be applied only through
injection into the spinal cord.
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40. • The challenge of using conotoxin as drugs is
that they’re not viable in pill form because our
digestive system breaks them down.
• That’s a reason why ziconotide must be
injected directly into the spine.
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41. • The abuse of and addiction to opioids and
prescription pain relievers , is a serious global
problem
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In Conclusion…
42. • The consequences of this abuse such as
unintentional overdose have been devastating
and are on the rise..
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43. Venoms from some animals could be used as
potential alternative non addictive pain killer
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44. • These toxins don’t act in the central nervous
system, and operates in the peripheral
nervous system.
• Drug resistance and addictions could be
avoided.
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45. Reference
• American Friends of Tel Aviv University. (2010, February 21). Pinch away the pain:
Scorpion venom could be an alternative to morphine.ScienceDaily. Retrieved February
26, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100216163341.htm.
• Behar, K.L., et al., 1999. Preliminary evidence of low cortical GABA levels in localized
1H-MR spectra of alcohol-dependent and hepatic encephalopathy patients. American
Journal of Psychiatry 156(6):952-954.
• Biophysical Society. (2016, February 29). Tarantula toxins converted to painkillers: It
turns out that peptide toxins isolated from the venom of some animals -- such as the
Peruvian green velvet tarantula -- can be beneficial when used to target neural receptors
to reduce the sensation of pain.. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 26, 2017 from
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160229082005.htm
• Breiter, H.C., et al., 1997. Acute effects of cocaine on human brain activity and emotion.
Neuron 19(3):591-611.
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46. • Dole, V.P., Nyswander, M.E.,Kreek, M.J., 1966. Narcotic blockade.
Archives of Internal Medicine 118 (4):304-309.
• Lecia Bushak,( 2015,April 10,).Venom As Medicine: How Spiders,
Scorpions, Snakes, And Sea Creatures Can Heal. Retrieved January
25,2016, Retrieved from https://www.medicaldaily.com/venom-medicine-
how-spiders-scorpions-snakes-and-sea-creatures-can-heal-328736.
• Pat Anson,(2015, March 05, ). Spider Venom Could Take the Sting Out of
Chronic Pain .Retreived January 20,2016 ,from
https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2015/3/5/spider-venom-could-
take-the-sting-out-of-chronic-pain.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Results from
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