Organoids Made From Snake Stem Cells Make Venom

Normally you get snake poison by “milking” snakes on snake farms. But organoids made from venom gland stem cells could let such farms die out.

Image by P. Schreiner from Pixabay

• Be also sure to check out my other posts and follow me @kralizec and subscribe to my Youtube channel at Kralizec Gaming Youtube Channel

You Want Venom? We Get Venom!

Lately, we have been hearing more and more about organoids. These tiny versions of various organs and tissues are amazingly useful for the research of many different diseases and how the various organs develop. But probably the most amazing thing they are useful for is drug testing. We have seen a good number of organoids in Petri dishes and even on chips. Yet, some can still amaze us.

This is exactly the case of the research done by a team led by Hans Clevers from the Hubrech Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research in the Netherlands, Utrecht. The scientists here have created organoids from snake stem cells that produce venom. They used stem cells from the venom glands of the Cape Coral Snake (or Cape Coral Cobra) - Aspidelaps lubricus cowlesi from the Elapidae family. This small but extremely venomous snake from the desserts of South Africa can even kill humans with its bite.

More than a hundred thousand people die every year because of a venomous snake bit – mostly in developing countries. The problem is that the base of snake venom antidote hasn't changed since the nineteenth century. Thus, there is a large demand for new ways to make anti-venom or new approaches to treating snake bites. Sadly, it remains mostly unfulfilled.

At the same time, we know that snake venom contains large amounts of biologically active substances that got created over the millions of years of evolution of venomous snakes and their prey. Truthfully, snake venom molecules are truly remarkable as their goal is to allow the snake to hunt and/or to protect him. They do so many different things inside the body of their victim and target many different parts of the victim's body – from the brain, neuromuscular connections up to affecting the coagulation of blood and many other important points of the targets body. This makes the substances very intriguing for researchers looking for new drugs.

The scientists in Cleversons laboratory were so far mostly concerning themselves with human and mouse stem cell organoids. But some of the students got excited for so far unseen experiments with snake stem cell organoids. And they decided to go at it with the most iconic piece of the snake – its venom glands. And their choice seemed to have been a good one – they now have snake organoids that produce venom.

The reason why the scientists used the small but deadly Cape Coral Cobra was very simple. They had one available. Or, to be more precise, the got fertilized eggs from a breeder and then they extracted the stem cells. Apart from the venom gland organoids they also managed to create liver, pancreas, and intestine organoids. But let's face it, none of those sound as cool as venom gland organoids that can function as tiny venom factors in a Petri dish.

As the scientists say – the venom gland organoids grew nice and fast. In just a week they were capable of making new organoids from them thus in just two weeks they had hundreds of Petri dishes full of them. Now, if they manage to get to them a point where the organoids produce the venom on mass they could become much more effective than current farms with sad snakes being “milked” for venom.

Sources:

---

• If you like the content I’m producing about science maybe you will like the content I produce about gaming as well! Be sure to check out my other posts!