Health

xchrom

(108,903 posts) Wed Sep 19, 2012, 08:06 AM Sep 2012

Snake venom may be 'drug source'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19634621

***SNIP

Medicine

Dr Wolfgang Wuster, from Bangor University, said: "Many snake venom toxins target the same physiological pathways that doctors would like to target to treat a variety of medical conditions."

The cardiovascular system, heart and blood vessels, is one of the main targets of snake venom when attacking prey and it has played a role in the origins of some blood pressure drugs such as ACE inhibitors.

The nervous system is another similar area. The challenge has been to overcome the toxic effect of the toxins.

"This means that drug developers have had to modify toxins to retain their potency and make them safe for drug use," said Dr Casewell.

2 replies

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Snake venom may be 'drug source' (Original Post) xchrom Sep 2012 OP

Any potent drug can be dangerous. bemildred Sep 2012 #1

There's an entire class of anti-hypertensives based on snake venom: hedgehog Sep 2012 #2

bemildred

(90,061 posts)

1. Any potent drug can be dangerous.

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Wed Sep 19, 2012, 08:29 AM

Sep 2012

What you really want is a large gap between the effective therapeutic dose and a toxic dose, like the effective dose is under half the toxic dose, then you have yourself a drug you can use.

The only good drug I can think of that is not also a strong poison is pot, which is strange in other ways too.

Snake venom, yeah, we could learn a lot there.

hedgehog

(36,286 posts)

2. There's an entire class of anti-hypertensives based on snake venom:

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Wed Sep 26, 2012, 06:06 PM

Sep 2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACE_inhibitors_drug_design

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