The Burmese Python (Python
bivittatus) is a pretty cool reptile. It’s one of the largest snakes(the
largest of the Pythons), and even by snake standards it’s got a big appetite;
it can eat things more than 1.6 times it’s weight, like pigs, alligators and
deer.
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Figure 1: A yummy deer for a hungry python
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Oh, and it might provide a treatment for heart failure. That’s pretty
cool too I guess.
When a
snake-especially a big eater like the Burmese Python-eats, a lot of changes
happen in its body. Its metabolism jumps from a crawl to an alarming pace, it
starts production of all sorts of digestive enzymes it doesn’t normally
produce, and its cardiovascular system expands. It’s that last point that
interests scientists. While a greatly enlarged heart can be dangerous, some
enlargement of the heart is a normal consequence of exercise and helps promote
proper blood flow and prevent things like cholesterol from building up in your
bloodstream, as well as strengthening the heart. Without this natural expansion
from exercise, the chance of developing a heart condition greatly increases.
But in our current busy society, lots of people don’t have time to get proper
exercise. Plus, let’s be honest here, lots of people just aren’t willing to put
the effort into working out all the time. Worst of all, people with existing heart
conditions usually can’t handle strenuous exercise, so their condition worsens
or they develop additional conditions. But with all of our technology, we must
know some way to cause that same heart expansion without exercise, right? Well,
no, or at least not without causing damaged to the heart. But Pythons do, and
we might have the technology we need to take their idea.
That’s what Leslie Leinwand and her team at the University of Colorado are working on. Last year they injected rats’ heart cells with snake plasma in vitro. The result was a healthy rats with an increased production of IGF-1(a hormone that causes the heart to expand in extraneous conditions), as well as stronger more durable hearts and an increased metabolism and ability to process fats.
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| Figure 2: IGF is sold as a health supplement for athletes because it promotes good blood flow |
By studying these
rats, they were able to isolate three fatty acids that seemed to contribute to these
symptoms; myristic acid, palmitic acid, palmitoleic acid. Further study showed
that injecting these fatty acids into grown, healthy rats seems to produce the
same symptoms as injecting the plasma in vitro, meaning the treatment can be
applied to adult individuals. Currently the team is working on testing the
effects of the treatment on rats with preexisting heart conditions. Their hope
is that the treatment will not only prevent new heart conditions, but also
reverse existing heart conditions, especially congestion, by flushing out congestants, increasing muscle strength and possibly even healing scaring. After that they have
to go through the long and arduous process of getting the treatment approved
for humans, which takes at least a couple years, but the project’s future is
looking bright.
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So how
is this case important from a conservationist standpoint? Are Burmese Pythons
in danger of extinction, thus endangering the future of this treatment? No;
they are considered threated, but not endangered (ironically, one of the main
reasons they are overexploited is because natives in India think believe blood
has healing properties-but they drink the blood, which as far as anyone can
tell has no positive health effects), and there’s quite a lot of them in
captivity, so from a researcher’s standpoint there’s plenty of research
subjects available. What’s interesting about the Burmese Python is more the
fact that it isn’t rare. Pythons have been studied before and their eating
habits and metabolism has been well documented for a while now. But it wasn’t
until 2005 that the idea of using python blood for human benefit came up, and
it wasn’t until 2011 that the idea had any success in the laboratory. In fact,
when the idea was first proposed most of Liendward’s contemporaries dismissed
it as silly. Liendward herself never had the idea until she happened to read an
article in Nature about snakes while
researching more conventional treatments for heart failure. The moral here
being that just because an organism has been identified or even studied doesn’t
mean it doesn’t have anything more to provide. New ways of thinking, new technologies
and bursts of inspiration allow us to utilize what nature has provided in ways
that we hadn’t thought of before. If we wish to reap the full benefit of what
nature has to offer in terms of medical inspiration, it is not enough to simply
preserve a species long enough so that it can be studied; they need to be
preserved further in case new inspiration strikes. You may or may not be able
to teach an old dog new tricks, but an old dog may know a trick you’ve never
even knew about.
Sources
CITES. May 9, 2012. http://www.cites.org/eng/app/appendices.php
Harvey, Charles. ”A Shot of Snake Blood Makes the Heart
Grow” New Scientist. Oct. 27. 2011.
King, Anthony. “Snake Oil Cures For Damaged Hearts” Discover
Magazine. June, 2012. Print
Klimas, Liz. “Could Snake Blood Soon Benefit Heart
Patients?” The Blaze. Oct. 28, 2011.
Images
Figure 1-http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/B8aJiKZVpjk-python-eats-deer.aspx
Figure 2-http://www.prweb.com/releases/Deer-Velvet-Extract/IGF-1/prweb8737813.htm
Figure 3-http://healthcarediary.com/congestive-heart-failure/
Figure 3-http://healthcarediary.com/congestive-heart-failure/
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