Wednesday, July 18, 2012

THE PIT VIPER THAT CAN KILL YOU CAN ALSO SAVE YOUR LIFE

The healing powers of toxins

The article “Venomous Drugs: The Pressure-Drop Viper” by James Mitchell Crow in New Scientist Magazine lists a number of medical drugs that have been extracted from the venom of snakes, scorpions, Gila monsters, sea anemones and cone snails.

Here is a list of the drugs mentioned in that article:

DRUG: Captopril; SOURCE: Pit viper; CONDITION: Hypertension

DRUG: Chlorotoxin; SOURCE: Deathstalker scorpion; CONDITION: Cancer

DRUG: ShK; SOURCE: Sea anemone; CONDITION: Autoimmune disease

DRUG: Xen2174; SOURCE: Cone snail; CONDITION: Severe pain

DRUG: Cobratoxin, cobrotoxin; SOURCE: Cobra; CONDITION: Multiple sclerosis, HIV

DRUG: Exenatide (Byetta); SOURCE: Gila monster; CONDITION: Type 2 diabetes

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