Can snake venom treat Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s? You will be amazed at the answer

According to scientists, they can be molded into candidate life-saving drug prototypes, like cancer, cardiovascular disease, and COVID-19.

It is well-known that snake venom is highly toxic and if not treated timely fatal too. However, it can also be used for the?treatment?of thrombosis, arthritis, cancer, and many other diseases.

Now, a new study by Indian scientists has revealed that peptides derived from the snake venom nerve growth factors hold promise as future therapeutic applications for preventing and treating neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are some of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. However, there is still a lack of treatment and therapies to stop, slow, or prevent these diseases.

Prof. Ashis Kumar Mukherjee, Director, Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati, an institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), and his team conducted a study on snake venom and found it to be a treasure house of drug prototypes for various biomedical applications.

According to scientists, they can be molded into candidate life-saving drug prototypes, like cancer, cardiovascular disease, and COVID-19. They found prospects in the nerve growth factor from snake venom, a minor component of the venom characterised by Prof. Mukherjee and his group.

“It possesses neurogenesis properties (triggering sprouting of neurites from a cell) by binding to the Tropomyosin receptor kinase A (TrkA) receptor, the high-affinity nerve growth factor receptor of rat pheochromocytoma PC-12 cells. However, drug development from a native toxin of snake venom is tedious,” said a statement from the DST.

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