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Cure for diabetes could lie in the deadly toxin of insidious sea snail, scientists hope
Scientists from the University of Utah have inspired hope for a diabetes cure after they explored the miraculous venom of a deadly sea snail.
Though scientists in China are said to have cured diabetes for a hefty price tag, 537 million adults worldwide are keen for a more effective health treatment. Currently, treatments involve Insulin injections for type 1 and reduced caloric intake for type 2.
Sea snails could provide an answer to diabetes
Our little planet is full of miraculous and often terrifying creatures like the leaf-cutter ants who recently devoured a tent in the Amazon Rainforest. Such creatures unknowingly factor into scientific research, whether filling in for lab rats or donating components not found elsewhere on Earth.
Scientists out of the University of Utah published a study in the Nature Communications journal this week after working with the deadly geography cone (Conus Geographus).
Unlike other animals who might use powerful jaws or iron-tipped teeth, the geography cone snail employs a cocktail of venomous toxins hundreds in number. When applied to a helpless victim through a shootable prong, the toxins block muscle signals and paralyze the creature.
Interestingly, a chemical found in the venom, consomatin, is very similar to a human hormone that regulates blood sugar called somatostatin. Not only that, but consomatin performs better, is more stable, and has greater accuracy.
Venomous animals have, through evolution, fine-tuned venom components to hit a particular target in the prey and disrupt it, Dr. Helena Safavi. If you take one individual component out of the venom mixture and look at how it disrupts normal physiology, that pathway is often really relevant in disease.
More discoveries could be on the horizon
Though the potential applications of consomatin as a diabetes cure are exciting enough, the scientific team said even more chemicals could be hiding in the geography cone’s venomous punch.
We think the cone snail developed this highly selective toxin to work together with the insulin-like toxin to bring down blood glucose to a really low level, said Associate Professor Ho Yan Yeung. It means that there might not only be insulin and somatostatin-like toxins in the venom. There could potentially be other toxins that have glucose-regulating properties too.
While it might seem bizarre that a humble snail can outperform scientists at the height of their field, the team said they’ve simply had longer to hone their chemistry skills.
Weve been trying to do medicinal chemistry and drug development for a few hundred years, sometimes badly, Dr. Helena Safavi added. Cone snails have had a lot of time to do it really well.
