Iris Publishers- Journal of Complimentary & Alternative Medicine | From Toxins to Drugs: Chemistry and Pharmacology of Animal Venom and other Secretions

 

 

Authored by Andrew G Mtewa 


Animal secretions are currently proving more than before to be one of the best sources of drugs for current and future health complications. Well managed and optimized, their chemical compounds can as well be used to prevent diseases. Insects, mammals, birds and lizards are some of the animals with bioactive peptides. These bioactives come from skin, saliva, venom, excreta, tissues and other fluids among others sources. Animal secretion uses as drugs have been proven both from history of community use as well as from laboratory benches. Drug development and designing from animals requires in-depth studies of the chemistry and pharmacology of the compounds responsible for bioactivities. Peptides form the largest part of these bioactive secretions. They are naturally unstable, and their handling and storage ways need to be optimized to maintain structure and potency which requires focus as well as adequate capital investment in order to get better drugs for health and disease management. The aim of this work was to present some of the pharmacological uses of chemical secretions and venoms from animals.

Venoms are toxic chemicals made up of proteins and peptides naturally tailored to act on vital systems of victims or preys, usually injected or sprayed into active biological systems through claws, spines and fangs among others [1] for both defensive and attack purposes. Venom in animals represents traits of adaption in ecosystems full of competition for resources and dominance for survival [2,3]. In terms of defense, animal venom gets bad from irritations to death from envenomation. Wasps, ants, bees, spiders, scorpion, centipede and millipede stings are the most known causes of envenomation in the whole world. However, most deaths from envenomation (80%) are from snake bites next to scorpion stings with 15% of deaths.

Many potentially bioactive molecules can be extracted and synthesized from the huge number of known venomous animals; at least 700 conus species, 1500 scorpion species, 725 snake species and 37000 spider species among others. These venomous animals are found in almost every country but are abundant in the tropical regions.

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