Some of the deadliest animals on earth are toxic. Poison is their deadly weapon to defend themselves or attack. Toxins are injected into the skin and become poison. There are hundreds of deadly subcutaneous syringes in nature. But humans have a long history of converting some of the most toxic substances on the planet into useful and even life-saving drugs, such as botulinum toxin, which is 1g enough to kill one million people. But by paralyzing the facial muscles, it can remove some wrinkles, and its effect is not limited to that. In fact, Botox was first used in the treatment of eye diseases, such as crossed eyes and eyelid convulsions, and is now used to prevent migraines. It is just one of many terrible substances that have been fully utilized. Scientists are increasingly turning the deadliest substances in the animal kingdom into drugs that work well with very small amounts, in other words, they are ideal drugs. Compared with other toxins, the molecular weight of animal toxin polypeptide is small, has high specificity and molecular diversity, is directly encoded by genes, low dose but strong toxicity, and is the key physiological component acting on the target organism. Therefore, animal toxin peptides as natural resources for drug development have been highly valued, a large number of drugs from animal toxin peptides have been approved by FDA, and some polypeptide drugs from animal toxins are in the clinical trial stage.<\/p>\n
Snake venom is a mixture of enzyme and non-enzyme protein or peptide. Many drugs derived from snake toxin peptide have been used in clinical treatment.<\/p>\n
A pentapeptide compound, which is an enhancer of bradykinin, was extracted from the venom of Agkistrodon halys Bothrops jaracaca. The structure of the pentapeptide was cut and the minimum pharmacophore Ala-Pro dipeptide was modified to synthesize an oral drug \u201ccaptopril\u201d. Captopril reduces blood pressure by increasing bradykinin activity and inhibiting thrombin (ACE). Captopril is a routine drug for the treatment of hypertension. In order to modify the structure of captopril, enalapril, lisinopril, Ramipril, and fosinopril were developed.<\/p>\n