Application of snake venom

What is the nature of ⒈ snake venom?

Snake venom is a kind of toxic proteins and peptides secreted by poisonous snakes, which contains a variety of enzymes, and it is also a substance that causes toxic reactions after poisonous snakes bite people. Fresh snake venom is a slightly fishy egg white-like sticky liquid, yellow, light yellow, green, or even colorless. It is neutral or weakly acidic when fresh, and can become alkaline after a little longer, with a water content of 50%-75% and a specific gravity of 1.030-1.080. Fresh venom is easy to produce foam when it comes into contact with air, and it is easy to deteriorate and lose its toxicity when placed at room temperature for 24 hours. The venom can be kept in refrigerator for 15 ~ 30 days and stored at 40 ℃ for a long time. Snake venom after vacuum drying or freeze-drying can be stored at room temperature for 20 ~ 30 years, but the toxicity intensity and the activity of some enzymes will decrease in different degrees, and it can still dissolve in the presence of water. The toxicity of the snake disappeared after ultraviolet radiation and heating. On the contrary, strong acids, strong bases and heavy metal salts that can denaturalize protein precipitation can destroy snake venom. Snake venom is also easy to be decomposed and destroyed by oxidants, reductants and proteolytic enzymes, thus losing its virulence. Formaldehyde treatment can also lose its toxicity, but the antigen can still be retained.

What ingredients does ⒉ snake venom contain?

Snake venom is characterized by complex components, and there are still some differences in toxic components among different snake species, subspecies, and even the venom secreted by the same kind of snake in different seasons. To separate and purify snake venom, it is known that there are neurotoxins, cardiotoxins, clotting toxins, hemorrhagic toxins and enzymes and other main components. In addition, it also contains some small molecular peptides, amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleosides, biogenic amines and metal ions, some of which are bioactive or related to biological activity. After purification, the toxic components of snake venom are 5-20 times larger than that of crude venom, and the toxic components are different.

What is the medicinal value of ⒊ snake venom?

Snake venom has high medicinal value. Pharmacological studies have proved that snake venom contains pharmacological functional components such as promoting coagulation, slimming, anticancer, analgesia and so on. It can prevent and treat the formation of stroke and cerebral thrombosis, as well as occlusive arteritis, coronary heart disease, Takayasu arteritis, limb artery spasm, retinal artery and vein occlusion, etc. snake venom also plays a certain role in relieving the symptoms of patients with advanced cancer, especially the analgesic effect, which has attracted worldwide attention. Snake venom is made into all kinds of antivenom, which is used to treat all kinds of snakebite, and it has been widely promoted.

What are the clinical applications of ⒋ snake venom disaster?

The research and clinical application of snake venom have made rapid progress in China. A large number of clinical practices have proved that snake venom has the following clinical applications.

⑴ analgesic effect as early as the 1970s, the cobra venom injection developed by Guangzhou Medical College was used in clinic. It has a good effect on trigeminal neuralgia, sciatica, malignant tumor pain, rheumatic and rheumatoid arthralgia, migraine, herpes zoster and other diseases with pain as the main symptoms. Snake venom as an analgesics has the following advantages: significant and lasting effect, wide safety range, no drug resistance in continuous use, and unlike morphine, there is no hidden feeling and danger. Kunming Animal Research Institute successfully trial-produced Ketongling from Naja naja atra venom in 1976, which has a good effect on the treatment of various painful diseases.

⑵ lowers blood pressure reported abroad, a bioactive peptide was isolated from the venom of Agkistrodon acutus, which can block the conversion of angiotensin, thus reducing the pressurized activity of angiotensin. It can be used to prevent and treat renal hypertension and the increase of blood pressure caused by long-term compression of renal artery. In China, it has also been found that there are components with obvious antihypertensive activity in Agkistrodon acutus venom, which can be developed into a new antihypertensive drug.

⑶ hemostatic viper venom can turn fibrinogen in the blood into fibrin and form clots. 0.1% viper venom sterilization solution can be used to treat hemophilia and other bleeding. In addition, it can also be used for the differential diagnosis of hematological diseases and become one of the clinical testing methods.

⑷ Anticancer effect Shenyang military General Hospital used Agkistrodon acutus venom combined with chemotherapy to treat osteosarcoma patients, so that the survival time of patients was significantly prolonged. In recent years, Shanghai Changning District New East District Hospital has used snake venom capsule to treat all kinds of cancer, which can reduce the mass and prolong the survival time of cancer patients. China Medical University carried out a study on the inhibitory effect of the original venom and isolated venom of Agkistrodon halys on tumor, and the results showed that the tumor inhibition rate was 30% to 87.1%. In addition, the extraction and separation of anticancer and anti-cancer components from snake venom in the Clinical Application Research Center of Snake Venom seen in the 238 Hospital of the people's Liberation Army has been completed, and has entered the animal experimental and clinical stage.

⑸ treatment of Cerebral Thrombosis and Angitis the Venom of Agkistrodon acutus in Changbai Mountain was purified at high temperature to obtain thrombin-like enzyme, which does not contain any toxic ingredients and treats cerebral thrombosis and its sequelae. The clinical results show that the enzyme is safe and reliable and the curative effect is very good. It can quickly relieve pain and promote appetite and sleep in patients with vasculitis. Some patients with cerebral thrombosis and hemiplegia have recovered from then on.

⑹ treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcer 6 cases of gastric and duodenal ulcer were treated with venomous snake in the laboratory of China Medical University. After barium meal and gastroscopy, only 30 days after treatment, 5 cases were completely cured and 1 case of ulcer reduced. It has also been clinically proved that the application of snake venom in the treatment of digestive tract ulcers has the effect of relieving pain and promoting sleep, and has the advantages of increasing patients' appetite and weight, so it is worth popularizing.

⑺ antivenom preparation China began to produce antivenom in the 1930s, and successively studied and refined antivenom against Agkistrodon halys, Agkistrodon acutus, Bungarus bungaroides, cobras, Agkistrodon halys, sea snakes, gold ring snakes, vipers and other venom serpents, which made great contributions to the treatment of people bitten by poisonous snakes.

⑻ snake venom is also used in the field of detoxification and the military. American research institutions have been engaged in this area of research.

Which units of ⒌ are carrying out medicinal research on snake venom in China?

With the development of human society, the research of snake venom is booming. At present, the research topics of Chinese medical and biologists mainly include three aspects: the first is the application of antivenom; the second is the chemical composition of snake venom and its toxicological and pharmacological effects; the third is the clinical application of snake venom. The units engaged in these studies are: China Medical University, Shanghai Institute of Pharmaceutical Research of the Ministry of Health, Zhejiang Medical University, Guangxi Medical College, Zhongshan Medical College, 238 Hospital of the Chinese people's Liberation Army, Shenyang College of Pharmacy, * * Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhejiang Institute of traditional Chinese Medicine, Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiwan University, Taiwan Tsinghua University and so on.