I Like It :) The year of the snake: The year of the snake
There are other venom-based drugs in the pipeline, too. Crotoxin, a protein from the South American rattlesnake, though not yet approved for use, may one day be employed to treat cancers. Crotoxin seems particularly attracted to cancer cells. One portion of the molecule recognises a protein on the cell’s membrane, and links to it. The other portion damages the membrane, triggering a mechanism called apoptosis which causes the cell to kill itself. Celtic Biotech, based in Dublin, is running a series of tests using this molecule on cancer patients at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris. This year, Celtic plans to try it on people with several different sorts of cancer, since the firm’s researchers believe it should be effective on all solid tumours. If those trials are successful, though, they then plan to concentrate on lung cancer, the largest market.
