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

1. Venom as Medicine
Deadly venoms Help rather than Hurt
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M.John Priyanth
University of Jaffna

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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27. 27
Black Mamba
Cobra
Coral Snake
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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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