Just a few facts about snake venom

All venomous snakes belong to a family called the Colubroidea.

There are arguments about the genetics of snake venom. Some believe that snake venom is a highly modified type of saliva which contains toxins. Others argue that the venomous snakes toxic juices comes from modified proteins that are formed when a snake's body tissues are altered. The level of toxicity of certain venoms is high enough to cause serious injuries such as paralysis to other animals and to the human population. A high enough dose of venom can be lethal and is almost always delivered through body piercing. The fangs of the venomous snake rips open a gateway and injects the poison into it's targets body through the body piercing.

That's the bad news about snake venom.

However, where the snake poison could be fatal to those who are bitten by certain venomous snakes, there are chemists and other scientists looking to harness the power of snake venom and use it's toxic compounds for medical purposes within the human population.

A look back into the evolution of the snake, going back over 50 million years,  seems to show a process of adaptation whereby at first the venom was produced on requirement where the snake would find a protein within a tissue and convert it into a bioweapon to use on it's prey. In time the process became a naturally occurring phenomenon whereby the premixed snake toxins were available on demand. 

"Evolutionary analysis of snake venom reveals that toxin proteins arose from multiple body tissues"  Life Sciences Articles. Venom Doc tracks down snake bioweapons

In other words scientific medical research laboratories are always on the prowl to find out how to convert deadly snake venom into lifesaving medicines.

Using venom for it's medicinal values is not a new standard in medicine. In the 1940's a product called Reptilase® which is a derivative of snake venom was being produced and used in pharmaceuticals in certain  markets. 

Today the use of venom based medical products continues to be assessed but has evolved into the field of medical diagnostics. Blood is one of the body humours that lends itself well to snake venom. Blood tends to coagulate or thicken and an overly thick blood is a portal to disease. Thrombosis is a condition where blood clots and venom is a natural anticoagulant.

Most treatments for thrombosis is done through pharmaceuticals such as Coumadin®, Heparin®, and the simple ASA such as Aspirin®. 

One brand name modern day medical diagnostics test that uses snake venom is Pefakit®. The diagnostic kits that come under that brand name are used in the detection of resistance to protein inhibition by human cells, and in other blood related diagnostic test. Pefakit® is registered to Pentapharm.

Other medical companies offer venom based products and venom based medications and it is not only  blood conditions that the researchers are considering in their experiments with snake venom. Any condition that is related to spasms of muscles or of the natural mobility of human tissue could be the focus of a study. Such a study would include the effects of controlled amounts of  snake venom in the human bloodstream or in other body fluids.

So there's another good reason to consider ourselves lucky to be brethrens of the snake. If we treat them well and respect the snake' s nature and it's natural habitat it may come back and save our lives someday.