Have you ever wondered why certain animals exist? If you really think about it why do we need moles, frogs, or even mosquitos, so far most of these animals have only proven to be really annoying. As soon as it rains you can bet that you’ll hear frogs croaking while you’re trying to sleep or be attacked by mosquitos when standing near standing water. It seems that most animals don’t really serve a purpose, but it’s turning out that most animals are really helpful. Think about snakes, they are the number one fear for most people, but over time they have proven to be really helpful. Snakes can either be venomous or non venomous depending on they type. So far the lethal venom from venomous snakes have been tested to have incredible healing abilities not only for heart problems or pain but for the number one killing disease in the United States, cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society more than 15 million people have had some form of cancer to this date. Of those 15 million people some are considered to be cancer-free, in remission, or still battling daily to see another day. It is estimated by the National Cancer Institute that in 2018 1,735,350 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. Of those people it’s estimated that 609,640 people will die from this disease. These numbers are really scary given the fact that there are only 325.7 million people living in the United States. Compared to a study reported by the National Cancer Institute in 2012, the amount of new cancer cases are very low. It was reported that there were 14.1 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer-related deaths. While the amount of deaths is over half the amount of new cases for that year, you have to take into consideration how many people have been battling in the previous years. According to the National Cancer Institute the death rate has fell by 25% in the years of 1990 to 2014. While this is a great improvement there are still going to be people being diagnosed with cancer on a daily basis. It’s said that about 5 to 10 percent of all cancer diagnosis can be traced back to genes inherited from our parents. So until we are able to find a way to figure out what is causing cancer to form as a result of the genes we inherit from our parents, we are still going to have a problem. While at the moment we cannot address a specific reason why people get cancer we can work on cures and treatment options.
There are a wide range of cancer treatments options that are currently available to patients. Some current options include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, hormone therapy, stem cell transplant, and precision medicine. Most of these options are not permanent and cost billions of dollars. It is estimated that cancer costs the world 895 billion dollars which isn’t that much more than heart disease which costs 753 billion dollars. You would think that there would be a cheaper way, but there isn’t. 50% of the 895 billion dollars goes to hospital outpatient costs and doctor visits, 35% comes from patients staying in the hospitals, and it’s estimated that 11% comes from prescription drugs. Some major cost factors include hospital and clinic visits, medicine and prescription drugs, lab tests, treatments, surgeries, and home health services. A 2014 study found that the price range for surgeries for various cancers ranges from $14,161 to $56,587. The current treatment options are not very cost effective even if a patient has insurance. Another problem with these treatments is the fact that nothing is a definite cure, people often go into remission but are often very likely to have cancer for a second or even third time. Luckily scientist might have found a way to have a more permanent option, but so far it has not proven to be very cost effective.
It seems that those scaly, slippery, slimy snake may prove to be really useful after all. Scientist have been able to determine that a snakes venom is very useful in targeting specific spots in many illnesses over the years. A recently developed drug by the Celtic Biotech company called CB24 is being used to treat cancer patients. This new drug comes from a subspecies of South American rattlesnakes that are being kept at a zoo in Kentucky. This new drug is made by extracting crotoxin from freeze-dried venom, it then is injected into the patient where it binds itself to a protein in cancer cells and has been reported to kill the cells. At first they reported that the tumors in patients taking the drug for five weeks did not grow. It was also reported that the drug had a strong pain killing effect. This was an amazing find but has not been proven to work and it is not a current option for patients yet. Other types of snakes like the cobra hold a possible cure for arthritis, or the vipers that led to heart and kidney drug, and the black mamba that could help cure Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's. These snakes hold the cure for many diseases that at their current stage are deemed incurable. There is one more snake in particular that has made some headlines for its venom, the copperhead snake. A protein called Contortstatin has proven that when used as an anti-cancer agent, it freezes the spread of cancer cells. Contortrostatin has two very important jobs when it is injected into a subject, first it stops cancer cells from forming new blood vessels and stops the bad cells from infecting other healthy cells. Dr. Francis Markland, a biochemist from the University of Southern California, is one of the main research scientists behind contortrostatin and believes that one day it might work for humans. So far they have only done research in petri dishes and lab rats have seen tremendous results so far. Now, all scientist have to do is figure out a way to get enough of these specific chemicals from the snakes venom.
Scientists can have anywhere from 70 to 500 snakes in an enclosure at a given time. While this may seem like a crazy amount of snakes, it’s nowhere near enough to make multiple cures to test in one day. In order to get a specific component of a snakes venom, like Contortrostatin, a snake must bit down onto a plastic lid on a jar. When a snake bites down it only lets out a few drops of venom in each bit. The next step is for the venom to be dried and purified in order to be able to separate all the toxic chemicals from the venom. While the process doesn’t seem that difficult, the problem with using snake venom for a cure is that a protein like contortrostatin only makes up .01 percent of the snake venom. That being said the few drops the scientist collect isn’t even remotely enough for a cure. Another problem is that a drug like contortrostatin, even though it has been tested to work great, is processed through the body way too fast. So it seems that in its current stage contortrostatin isn’t the best option for a cancer research, instead scientists have began working on genetically engineering a chemical similar to those that are being taken from the snakes venom. So with more research, snakes, and funding, we might have a more permanent solution for a cancer cure.
So far we have seen great improvements in the cancer cure research field and many new ways to use the lethal snake venom. With more research and new and improved technology scientist can continue to work their theory and test on something more human rather than rats and petri dishes. With continued study and more money we just might have a permanent cure for cancer and save the lives of thousands of people all thanks to those scaly slimy snakes that everyone fears so much.