Protein fragments found in cobra venom could be used to fight autoimmune disorders.
Cobra venom is one of the most potent naturally occurring venoms on Earth. The venom causes complete muscular paralysis. Most victims, human or animal, stop breathing within minutes and die of asphyxiation. However, cobra venom contains a compound that could alleviate the symptoms of a host of severe illnesses that arise when the body turns on itself.
A protein called cobra venom factor (CVF) is extremely similar in structure to a blood protein called C3. Researchers at the Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i (CRCH), at the University of Hawai‘i, have mapped both of these proteins. With this information they have created a hybrid form of C3 which contains a small portion of CVF. This hybrid protein could prove to be a useful tool in fighting a wide variety of autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and, possibly, septic shock.
In humans, C3 plays an important role in the complement system, a key component of the immune system. The complement system helps the body fight pathogens by directing the immune response against alien bodies and dangerous targets in the blood. Complement floats in the bloodstream. When activated, it can literally poke holes in cells to kill them, or it can cause inflammation around them, a standard immune response that is part of the way the body kills pathogens. The complement system can also run out of control and lead to autoimmune disorders, which cause the body to attack itself. “Normally, the complement system is an important component in keeping us healthy, but there are diseases where it is activated inadvertently or inappropriately,” says Carl-Wilhelm Vogel, the director of the CRCH and a co-inventor of the hybrid protein (patent pending) with fellow CRCH researcher David Fritzinger.
Pure CVF activates the complement system in human blood serum. Unlike C3 activity, the human body cannot regulate CVF activity. As a result, the presence of CVF causes the complete depletion of complement components. The complement response slows down and stops as the supply of complement components in the blood dwindles. By exhausting the complement response, CVF can hypothetically limit the ill effects of autoimmune disorders in the same way that opening up floodgates on a dam can prevent a river from overflowing.
Injecting pure CVF into people would likely cause a dangerous immune response. However, the hybrid version contains only the 5% of CVF that irreversibly activates the complement system. The remainder is human C3. This minimizes the chances of the body rejecting the compound as a foreign substance. Hybrid CVF holds significant promise as a mechanism to regulate complement response in humans. To date, this has not been possible. For this reason, hybrid CVF has the potential to be a key compound that might help create a drug or class of drugs to fight autoimmune disorders.
Carl Wilhelm-Vogel, who has both a medical degree in pathology and a Ph.D. in biochemistry, was formerly chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Vogel began studying CVF over two decades ago as a postdoctoral researcher training in molecular immunology at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in California. David Fritzinger is an associate professor at CRCH and a long-time collaborator on CVF research with Vogel.
Chart Source: Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i - Photo: Carl Wilhelm Vogel