Dr. Bryan Ardis recently revealed that covid has its origins in snake venom, and many people don’t know that the starting point for most pharmaceutical research is snake venom.
A UK company named “Venomtech,” has announced that they have a venom peptide and venom fragment library, used for drug discovery – also used in pesticides.
The announcement “Venomtech announces new drug development collaboration with Charles River,” was published widely by biotech media.
The announcement states:
Venomtech is collaborating with Charles River Laboratories, International Inc. to help drug developers explore venom-derived compounds for a wide range of therapeutic targets. This newly formed collaboration will bring together Venomtech’s biology expertise and vast venom-derived peptide library, with Charles River’s drug development and screening knowhow, providing pharmaceutical manufacturers with a one-stop service to explore this unique natural resource.
Venomtech’s Targeted-Venom Discovery Array™ (T-VDA™) libraries provide researchers with a straightforward solution to rapidly screen thousands of individual venom fragments, with each array specifically designed to maximise hits for a specific target.
The announcement carries this statement from Venomtech CEO Paul Grant:
Venomtech has been at the forefront of venom research for drug discovery for more than a decade… we can now showcase our innovative technology, introducing the wider industry to the potential of venoms for the successful delivery of more leads, more quickly, for a broad range of [cellular] targets.
…we can now offer our clients access to bespoke venom libraries, potentially accelerating their [drug] discovery pipelines using this powerful natural resource.
The Venomtech company is described as follows:
Venomtech is a global leader for venom research enterprises, based out of world-class laboratories at Discovery Park in Kent, UK.
…[we are] helping our customers worldwide make pioneering advances in drug discovery, crop protection, and cosmetics. We have the largest library of naturally sourced venom-derived compounds in the UK, from a growing collection of vertebrate and invertebrate species.
Many in the media are having a difficult time believing Dr. Ardis’ claims, but one only has to look at the Venomtech website, to see that it’s more than just a possibility, it’s common practice that snake venom is used in pharmaceutical research.
As VenomTech says on their own drug discovery page:
Our naturally derived peptide, protein, and small molecule compounds enable pioneering perspectives and solutions that have proven effective even on hard-to-hit targets where traditional approaches have previously failed. They affect a variety of molecular targets, such as ion channels, GPCRs and enzymes, with a high degree of selectivity and potency, reaping the benefits of millions of years of evolution rather than just over a hundred years of drug discovery.
Our customers have access to a library of 20,000 peptides, proteins, and small molecules derived from venoms – the largest library of naturally sourced compounds available in the UK – supplied as an innovative Targeted-Venom Discovery Array™ and custom arrays with a demonstrated track record of success for drug discovery applications.
The National Library of Medicine, published a study that revealed the existence of “nanocarriers,” which stabilize snake venom peptides to allow delivery via water supplies.
Entitled, “Nanoparticles Functionalized with Venom-Derived Peptides and Toxins for Pharmaceutical Applications,” the study abstract explains the mechanism by which snake venom peptides are stabilized in water and other solutions:
Venom-derived peptides display diverse biological and pharmacological activities, making them useful in drug discovery platforms and for a wide range of applications in medicine and pharmaceutical biotechnology. Due to their target specificities, venom peptides have the potential to be developed into biopharmaceuticals to treat various health conditions such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and chronic pain. Despite the high potential for drug development, several limitations preclude the direct use of peptides as therapeutics and hamper the process of converting venom peptides into pharmaceuticals. These limitations include, for instance, chemical instability, poor oral absorption, short halflife, and off-target cytotoxicity. One strategy to overcome these disadvantages relies on the formulation of bioactive peptides with nanocarriers. A range of biocompatible materials are now available that can serve as nanocarriers and can improve the bioavailability of therapeutic and venom-derived peptides for clinical and diagnostic application. Examples of isolated venom peptides and crude animal venoms that have been encapsulated and formulated with different types of nanomaterials with promising results are increasingly reported.
