SNAKE VENOMS: COMPOSITION AND CANCER THERAPEUTIC POTENTIALS
O. K. OKORO
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi-Campus, Nnewi, Nigeria
E. OBI *
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi-Campus, Nnewi, Nigeria
EUCHARIA A. ABIA
Integrated Risk Assessment Team of Integrated Health for All Foundation (IHAF), Cameroon
RICHARD FOMBOH
School of Toxicology and Risk Assessment (SoToxRA), College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CoSET), Institute for Management and Professional Training (IMPT), Yaounde, Cameroon
WILFRED ABIA *
Integrated Risk Assessment Team of Integrated Health for All Foundation (IHAF), Cameroon and School of Toxicology and Risk Assessment (SoToxRA), College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CoSET), Institute for Management and Professional Training (IMPT), Yaounde, Cameroon
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Cancer is amongst the leading cause of death worldwide. Many active secretions produced by animals have been employed in the development of new drugs to treat cancer with remarkable progress. The major drawback of the current methods of cancer treatment is the therapies after initial treatments thus, necessitating alternative cancer therapy especially from natural products. Although toxic, the biodiversity of snake venom is a unique source for novel cancer therapeutics. Some of the compounds found in snake venom present a great potential as antitumor agent. It is probable that some snake venom proteins (or peptides and enzymes) may bind specifically to cancer cell membranes, affecting the migration and proliferation of these cells. In this review, we focused discussions on some major recent findings on anticancer potentials of snake venom.
Keywords: Snake venom, toxins, anti-cancer, cancer