it Might Get Messy

A year or so ago, when I really did think I was going to die, I melodramatically asked myself what aspects of life I would miss the most. Of course, this made the metaphysical presumption that my dead self would be in condition to “miss” anything, which of necessity means I also bypassed the potential for death to bring a sort of ideal retirement situation, where your noncorporeal essence gets to act as if it had plenty of money and time on its hands. 


Anyway. Among life’s pleasures that I was sure I would “miss” were trips to the beach. The smell of the ocean, the sunset over the sound, that shock the first time every year that your testicles get dunked in the ocean… .


Anyway. It had been years since I’d been to the beach when I hit the emergency room last July, and I thought I’d like to live long enough to do at least one more trip. But before we deal with that nostalgia, let’s consider the potential for snake venoms to contribute to cancer treatment.


Metastasis—spread—is heavyweight among the life-threatening tools in the cancer kit. Tumors at their point of origin are often sublethal or at least slower to kill than tumors that have spread to multiple organ systems. Remember Bob Marley. Cancer of his toe, left untreated spread to his lungs and brain, killing him. 


But metastasis is a tricky thing, if you think about it. Cancer is not (generally) an “infection”, it can’t spread by reproduction and cellular invasion as microbes do. Rather, proteins that induce cells to runaway division have to reach and penetrate tissues in remote anatomical locations. They do this by binding to other proteins on the cell surfaces. Binding proteins called “integrins” are present on the outside of cancer cells, and are thought to be important in metastasis. Snake venoms interfere with integrin functioning (which is also critical in platelet clotting of blood, for example), and researchers hypothesized potential activity in cancer spread. A protein called “contortrostatin” present in copperhead (the north American pit viper, not the Australian elapid) venom interferes with integrin binding by at least some cancer cells [1]. Similar proteins (rhodostomin, found in a southeast Asian pit viper) also inhibit breast tumor vascularization, further constraining cancer activity [2]. These and other venom components are under investigation for cancer treatment potential. 


Which brings us back to the beach. Much as I enjoy parking my butt in the sand and watching the ocean, I love the Outer Banks because it’s about the easiest place I know to catch pit vipers. Specifically cottonmouths. And the thing I found myself missing the most, there in the hospital while the vacuum system kept my throat functionally clear of thick, killer mucous, was the smell of pit viper musk. When the snakes get pissed off (like when you grab them), they expel the thick-scented contents of cloacal musk glands. It’s perfume to a herpetologist.


So I’m thrilled to be back at the beach this year, alive and kicking. And collecting cottonmouths:

And harvesting their venom:

Check over at http://docviper.livejournal.com/ over the next couple of days for the results of some toxicology experiments conducted with venom harvested from Outer Banks cottonmouths earlier in the week. Check professional weblog at http://aehsfoundation.org/ . Most of all, travel safe my friends. I love you all!


[1] http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/93/4/261.full


[2] http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/59/5/1333.full.pdf