Dead good: Five poisons that save lives
Throughout the ages, numerous toxins courtesy of mother nature have been found to offer various health benefits. Here, EPM looks at five potentially deadly poisons that could be or have been proved by scientists to better or save lives.
1/ Pufferfish:
Death - This spiky fish family is considered to be the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world. Depending on the species, certain internal organs, such as the liver, and sometimes the skin, contain tetrodoxotin, which can cause fatal paralysis of muscles that control breathing and heart rate.
Life - Back in 2013, the Med-Sol Research Clinic in Florida tested a drug that used pufferfish toxins to alleviate pain in cancer survivors suffering chemotherapy side-effects. One of the clinical trial’s participants had chemotherapy-induced neuropathy (burning pins and needles) in her feet and fingertips; by the third day of treatment she reported being able to “…actually straighten [her] hands out."
2/ Cone snail:
Death - The cone snail, typically found in warm and tropical seas, immobilises prey using a radular tooth that harpoon launches out of its mouth and delivers neurotoxins. The sting of small cone snails is no worse than a bee sting, however a sting from some few of the larger species can be fatal to humans.
Life - Last year, scientists from the University of Queensland in Australia announced that they had created powerful painkillers based on protein found in cone snails’ venom, which they hoped might lead to the development of a drug to treat chronic nerve pain. As outlined by the University of Queensland’s Professor David Craik, it could pave the way for a welcome alternative to morphine: “It acts by a completely different mechanism than morphine, so we think it has a minimal possibility of producing the side-effects of that medication. That is one of the big advantages of this drug.” A prototype drug has significantly reduced pain in rats.
3/ Digitalis:
Death - Depending on species, the digitalis plant (or foxglove as it is more commonly known) may contain several deadly physiological and chemically related cardiac and steroidal glycosides. The entire plant is toxic, although the upper stem leaves more so, with ingestion of a very tiny amount being potentially lethal.
Life - The drug dioxin, extracted from the foxglove plant, is currently used to regulate an irregular heart rate in some patients but has, in more recent research, also been shown to improve blood pressure. A 2012 study identified a protein involved in the prevention of high blood pressure, prompting the study’s authors to screen thousands of drug compounds and ultimately discover that digoxin has the ability to increase this protein in mice.
4/ Brazilian yellow scorpion:
Death - The Brazilian yellow scorpion is as its name suggests native to Brazil and its venom is extremely toxic. Although extraordinarily painful, its sting would not however normally kill a healthy human. The young, elderly and infirm (such as those with a heart condition or who are likely to suffer an allergic reaction) are of course at greater risk. The sting of the Brazilian yellow causes pancreatitis in human victims.
Life - It has been known for a while that the Brazilian yellow scorpion’s venom is toxic to cancer cells, but the challenge has been getting the venom to the tumours and not harming the body in the process. A group of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign released a study last year proving that they are well on the way to achieving this. The group of scientists created nanoparticles containing TsAP-1, the necessary toxic protein isolated from the venom of the Brazilian yellow scorpion, which killed two types of breast cancer in the lab, without harming blood or other cells.
5/ Ergot
Death - Ergot is a fungus that infects rye crops and is passed to human when they eat that infected rye. Symptoms include hallucinations, convulsions, strong uterine contractions and nausea; consumption can in extreme cases lead to limb amputations and even death.
Life - In the middle ages, controlled doses of ergot were used to induce abortions and stop bleeding after childbirth. Today, ergot is used in migraine treatment products and is a key ingredient in many medicines used to treat Parkinson’s.