Mast Cells and Snake Venoms

Those cells plaguing us with allergies can save us from lethal snake bites. And, ironically, those same venoms can give us life saving drugs. PREMIUM CONTENT subscriber access

When just a young resident running a medicine ward, I admitted a teenager with end stage heart failure, his lungs filling up fast. We had max’d out on all the meds available to us at that time, and we had run out of options. His perplexed cardiologist pulled me aside and asked me to give him a newly approved medication, and to watch carefully to how he responds. Well amazingly! after that first dose, he diuresed off ~4 liters of fluid within 24 hours.

And that miracle med was …? Captopril. The first one approved in the class of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) Inhibitors.

And … it was derived from snake venom - the Brazilian viper, Bothrops jaracaca.