Rattlesnake venom substance may help skin cancer treatmentNovember 2, 2012 - 21:15 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - A substance extracted from rattlesnake venom could raise survival hopes among patients with skin cancer, according to experiments performed by Brazilian researchers, Fox News reported. Chromatin, a protein isolated from the venom of the South American snake, increased the survival rate of rats with skin cancer by up to 70 percent, the Butantan Institute said. The protein also helped to significantly retard the development of tumors and even to completely inhibit their formation, according to Butantan, an institute linked to the health department of Sao Paulo state. The researchers heading the unprecedented study discovered that the protein is able to kill cells but its toxic action is exclusively limited to melanoma cells, meaning that it does not affect an organism's other cells. The substance also remains inside a cancerous tumor for only about 24 hours. Researchers admit that they still need to perform other tests on animals and, ultimately, humans before they can think about the possibility of developing a new drug. The priority, however, before experimenting with it on humans, is to be able to synthesize the protein, that is to produce it in the laboratory without having to extract and process actual snake venom. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |