Venom Goes From Deadly to Life Saving. What you missed this week.

Snake venom is a complicated potion of proteins and other compounds that produce deadly results. Scientists are breaking it down substance by substance, revealing potential drugs for human disease treatments. This week marks one month into one such study on CB24, a crotoxin derived drug from the venom of an American diamondback rattlesnake.

Photo Credit: Doug Hotle cabq.gov

The Phase 1b Clinical trial, headed by Celtic Biotech and oncologist Jacques Medioni, addresses the safety and therapeutic potential of the drug for cancer sufferers. The compound enters cancer cells and causes them to commit cell suicide, known as apoptosis. One previous study on the crotoxin evaluated tolerable doses of the drug and resulted in not only tumor size reduction but also reduced pain for the patients. Rigourously tested on mice and human cancer cell lines, this compound shows promise, especially regarding solid lung and breast tumors.

Last week, four rattlesnakes were transported from the Albuquerque Biopark to the premier venom laboratory at the Kentucky Reptile Zoo to be used in the study. These snakes will be humanely milked for their venom, which will be shipped to France for processing before use in the study. Snake venom is produced by glands under the eye and is injected into prey through large hollow fangs. The collected venom could prove useful in these cancer treatments and has potential for the treatment of other diseases as well. These villians of American Western films could very well be the heroes of the day.


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