Animals and Myriad Ways they can Kill or Heal Us Essay - 1

Animals and Myriad Ways they can Kill or Heal Us - Essay Example Introduction A lot of animals in this world are poisonous. Often they come in direct conflict with humans and become the cause of death and partial or total paralysis. This is the reason man has hated these animals for centuries. By making these animals useful, present advancement of science and technologies has changed this preconceived notion. Some of these animals are snakes, spiders, and scorpions. This paper reviews the benefits that are derived from venoms of these animals, the process of processing venom and the diseases they cure. Venom ejected by snakes can be broadly classified into four groups. These are neurotoxins, sitotoxins, hemotoxins and miotoxins. In the majority of cases, neurotoxic venom is related to the nervous system, hemotoxins is related to blood and vascular tissues and miotoxins is a combination of both neurotoxic and hemotoxic venoms. Cobra is one of those snakes whose venom is used for therapeutic purposes. Venom ejected by cobra can be classified as a ne urotoxin, a compound that affects nervous systems of human beings. Reference to cobra venom can be traced to Chinese civilization and Vedas. During the early 1900’s cobra venom was largely used as a medicine to treat people with depression, back pain, headaches and menstrual pain (The Therapeutic Uses of Cobras’ Venom Neurotoxins, n.d.). ... The homeopathic physicians prescribe venom of Asian Cobra (Naja tripudians), but in practice, venom from all types of cobra from Middle East to Philippines is taken and processed (The Therapeutic Uses, n.d.). Medical use Since 1960, snakes venom has acquired an important place in medical treatment. The compounds present in snake venom affect muscle contraction by enhancement of the hormone Bradykinin. This hormone is responsible for dilatation the blood vessels. â€Å"The peptides present in venom transform angiotensin I into another peptide, angiotensin II, which also supports constriction†. When the Bradykinin as well as other peptides are blocked, the process of ‘blood vessel constriction’ no longer functions. Only the process of dilatation takes place. This makes snake venom an effective and alternative treatment for treating symptoms of hypertension. In spite of not being a medical drug, peptide present in snake venom contains numerous chemical features which make â€Å"it indispensible for heart attacks, neurological disorders, diseases related to blood†. Some drugs that are processed from venom of snakes are Lisinopril, Enalapril, Defibrase and Captopril. More extensive use of snake venom is utilized in treating problems related with blood cells. Snake venom has also helped in development of non- peptide compounds like Aggrastat by using ‘disintegrin’, which is a toxin present in the venoms of saw- scaled viper found in Africa. The compound functions by binding fibrinogen receptors present in blood onto platelets which is performed by disintegrin, thus performing the function of a coagulant. Some compounds in snake venom, like ‘Ancrod’ enzyme of Calloselasma rhodostoma also functions as