Tariq Kabil

For the first time in the history of science, scientists have been able to produce snake venom in the laboratory by cultivating cells, which opens a new path - which was urgently needed - in the development of drugs and antioxidants, so that there is less need to breed large numbers of snakes to extract their toxins.

In addition to becoming a new source for the manufacture of snake antidote, cultured cell blocks can also be used to convert snake venom into medications and medicinal drugs.

Commenting on their research published in the journal "Cell" on January 23 this year, scientists confirm that the arrival of large quantities of these toxins faster and more controlled may mean that these treatments can be developed more easily and in a shorter time period.

Snake venom
Snake venom has continued to be used to develop medications and treatments since the time of ancient Greece. In modern times, drugs have been developed that fight everything from cancer to bleeding, with the help of chemicals that we find in snake venom.

Traditionally, snake breeding was carried out in order to extract its toxins to make a poison antidote, and the healing antidote was produced by extracting snake venom first and then injecting it in simple doses in animals such as horses, so that the immune system stimulated to produce antibodies inside the animal's body, then these bodies were extracted Anti blood from animal blood.

Scientists were able for the first time to grow poison glands that are stationed in the snake poison pumping device (Wikimedia)

"More than a hundred thousand people die from snake bites every year, most of them are in developing countries ... However, the methods of making antioxidants have not changed," says Hans Clippers, a molecular biologist from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Since the nineteenth century. "

Toxic organelles cultivation

The toxins were produced by small glands called organoids, following a cited human organ development process in the laboratory, which is already helping to develop a wide range of scientific and medical research projects.

Researchers have been able to grow organelles extracted from coral snake or coral snake ( Aspidelaps lubricus ), a type of venomous snake that inhabits parts of South Africa and seven other types of snakes, and they say this new approach is a welcome upgrade to existing snake breeding methods on farms to extract You name it.

By altering and altering the recently developed process of developing human organelles, including lowering the temperature to match the temperatures of reptiles, researchers have managed to find a successful recipe that supports the unlimited growth of small snake venom glands.

The tissues were removed from snake embryos and placed in a gel mixed with growth factors, and stem cell access was not required at this stage.

Soon the cells began to divide and form new cellular structures, giving the team hundreds of developing samples within two months, and the cells produced small, sticky, round white masses or blocks, from which toxins could be "harvested" easily.

At least four different types of cells were identified within the artificial toxic glands, and researchers were also able to confirm that the poison peptides (the chain of amino acids) produced were biologically active, closely resembling those in the venom of a living snake.

"We know from other secretory systems such as the pancreas and intestine that specialized cell types make subgroups of hormones ... We have now seen for the first time that this is the case for toxins produced by cells," says development biologist Job Biomer from Utrecht University - in a statement to the university's website. Snake venom glands. "

Many benefits

The ability to make poison in the laboratory will reduce the need to raise snakes to obtain their toxins, as well as that there are only a few types of snakes that can be bred for this purpose, and this means that the new method will provide a way to produce an antidote to many of the hard-to-breed snake bites.

In addition to developing drugs, these organelles facilitate the development of anti-toxins, and with many people affected by injuries, disabilities or death due to snake bites, this will make a big difference.

Commenting on this research achievement, José Maria Guterres of the University of Costa Rica for Science told "Science" that "this work allows the study of cellular biology of toxin secreting cells on a very good level, which was not possible in the past" .