Can animals like snakes and sharks really save our lives?
Yes. We know that snake venom can harm or kill people. Its function in nature is to kill a snake’s enemies. But the powerful bioactive (having an effect on living things) chemicals in snake venom can also be transformed into medicines. One type of venom, for example, kills animals (and sometimes humans) by lowering blood pressure to such a degree that it can become fatal. One chemical from this venom, given in modified and weak doses, may become a new medicine that prevents and treats high blood pressure, one of the world’s leading killers of people everywhere. Likewise, we think of sharks as something that can harm us. And you certainly wouldn’t want to be at the business end of a hungry shark. But at the same time, sharks have much to teach us. For reasons that scientists do not yet fully understand, sharks rarely get sick. Studying the chemicals that many sharks produce has already yielded promising clues that may lead to exciting new medicines to treat cancer and other diseases. Su
