Venom News and Research

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PNG black market in snake venom means over 600 die needlessly

Recent exposure by the Australian media has revealed that more than 600 people die needlessly in Papua New Guinea (PNG) from snake bites each year because corruption keeps stocks of anti-venom so low.

21 Feb 2008

Scorpion venom may hold key to controlling cystic fibrosis

Researchers have discovered a peptide in scorpion venom that may hold the key to understanding and controlling cystic fibrosis and other secretory diseases.

17 Feb 2008

Scientists zero in on the cellular machinery that enables neurons to fire

Toy robots with removable body parts - you probably had fun swapping their heads, imagining how it would affect their behavior. Scientists supported by the National Institutes of Health have been performing similar experiments on ion channels - pores in our nerve cells - to sort out the channels' key functional parts.

15 Nov 2007

Synthetic version of chlorotoxin shows promise in treatment of brain tumors

A drug developed and tested at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) targeted at malignant brain tumors known as glioma has shown promising results in a Phase 1 trial, according to results presented at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology annual meeting.

6 Nov 2007

Snake venom composition may change according to the victim

A snake's intended prey might affect the type and evolution of toxins in their venom, research published in the online open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology shows.

27 Sep 2007

Cell that triggers symptoms in allergy attacks can also limit damage

A blood cell known as a troublemaker for triggering the itch and inflammation in allergy attacks, the mast cell, can also calm down the flare-ups, researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine have found.

3 Sep 2007

Protein on the surface of platelets plays a key role in cancer-induced platelet aggregation

Scientists have provided new details about how cancer cells spread by surrounding themselves with platelets – the blood cells needed for blood clotting.

30 Aug 2007

Fibrin may be new target for Alzheimer's drugs

Despite the rapid rise of Alzheimer's disease - the Alzheimer's Association predicts as many as 7.7 million cases by 2030 - there are no preventative treatments available, few in the pharmaceutical pipeline, and those drugs being developed all share the same two molecular targets.

15 Aug 2007

Fear protein found

A University of Iowa study shows that loss or chemical inhibition of a protein, known as acid sensing ion channel protein (ASIC1a), reduces innate fear behavior in lab animals, making normally timid mice relatively fearless.

2 Aug 2007

New approach for tackling allergies

Allergies, like the common cold and asthma, have basically defied the best efforts of modern medicine to cure them.

28 Jun 2007

Snake venom medication

A chemist at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) is looking for unusual structures in snake venom and plans to prove their medical effectiveness.

16 Jun 2007

Snake venom toxin as a treatment for prostate cancer

This certainly sounds unusual, but Dr. Son and colleagues report on the effectiveness of the snake venom toxin (SVT) Vipera lebetina turanica in the inhibition of androgen-independent prostate cancer (AICAP) in the February 2007 issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics .

16 Apr 2007