Snake Venom: A Potent Anticancer Agent

Abstract

Since cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and there is an urgent need to find better treatment. In recent years remarkable progress has been made towards the understanding of proposed hallmarks of cancer development and treatment. Treatment modalities comprise radiation therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and hormonal therapy. Currently, the use of chemotherapeutics remains the predominant option for clinical control. However, one of the major problems with successful cancer therapy using chemotherapeutics is that patients often do not respond or eventually develop resistance after initial treatment. This has led to the increased use of anticancer drugs developed from natural resources. The biodiversity of venoms and toxins makes them a unique source from which novel therapeutics may be developed. In this review, the anticancer potential of snake venom is discussed. Some of the included molecules are under clinical trial and may find application for anticancer drug development in the near future.

In Vitro Cytotoxic and Proapoptotic Activities of Anatolian Macrovipera Lebetina Obtusa (Dwigubski, 1832) Crude Venom on Cultured K562 Human Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Cells.

“…Anticancer properties of snake venom proteins and their therapeutic potential have been reviewed recently by various authors. 9,35 In the present study, the cytotoxicity of M. l. obtusa venom against K562 cell line was observed and IC 50 values were calculated as 0.45 and 0.37 µg/mL by MTT and ATP assays, respectively. Although the results were similar, these two assays could give different results in certain conditions.…”

IL-12 Regulates B7-H1 Expression in Ovarian Cancer-associated Macrophages by Effects on NF-κB Signalling

“…Recently, immunotherapy has shown great promise for cancer treatment (Jain et al, 2012), however, resistance of cancer cells to immunotherapy remains a definite challenge. Studies have demonstrated that B7-H1 play a critical role in ovarian cancer immune evasion (Dong et al, 2002;Dong et al, 2003).…”

Biotoxins for Cancer Therapy

“…Natural venoms are useful biological resource, containing several pharmacologically active components that could be of potential therapeutic value. Many biotoxins have antitumor activity, some of them killing tumor cells directly, some inhibiting tumor angiogenesis and inhibiting tumor growth (Orsolic, 2012;Jain and Kumar, 2012). Here are several representative biological toxins that have antitumor applications.…”