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Snake Swap May Soothe Vicious Venom
A
pair of hissing cousins are sinking their fangs into a research project that may bring relief to thousands of snake bite victims in the former Soviet Union.The Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center (APDIC), administered by the UA College of Pharmacy, has initiated an exchange program that combines snakes and research in a unique package.
The Poison Center recently shipped three Banded Rock Rattlesnakes to the Moscow Zoo in exchange for 12 Mamushi Pit Vipers. Because the two snakes are considered close biological cousins, researchers want to know if antivenin used to treat rattlesnake bites in the United States will work on victims suffering from a Mamushi bite.
The idea grew out of a relationship between APDIC and the Toxicology Information Center (TIC) in Almaty, Khazakstan. Poison Center officials helped launch TIC and regularly offer their advice to Khazakstan's fledgling poison control system in the former Soviet Union. During a 1996 emergency medicine conference in Vladivostok, Russia, APDIC participants noticed commonalities between Russian snake bite cases and those seen in the United States. Although the symptoms of envenomation were similar, treatments in the two regions are very different. While
U.S. physicians treat rattlesnake bites with antivenin, physicians in Almaty offer patients pain killers, human blood products and other methods, sometimes resulting in longer suffering and complications.
To determine if Western rattlesnake antivenin could ease some of that suffering required navigation through a dizzying blur of international bureaucracy in both countries. To get Mamushi snakes to the United States to analyze their venom, Poison Center officials agreed to send rattlesnakes to the Moscow Zoo. Leslie Boyer, M.D., APDIC medical director and Jude McNally, R.Ph., APDIC assistant director, took on the challenge with help from the Tucson-Almaty Sister Cities Project. After wading through hundreds of phone calls, e-mails, official documents, passport information and travel permits for both scientists and snakes, the exchange was arranged.
"This is important medically, a challenge culturally, and it's fun," Dr. Boyer says. "It wouldn't have happened without greater cooperation between the United States and the former Soviet Union."
Once the paperwork finally was arranged, Boyer and McNally turned to Trevor Hare, a consulting herpetologist to the Poison Center, for his guidance in properly transporting the snakes.
Hare carefully loaded three rattlers - two males and one female - into cotton bags and placed the creatures inside a custom-made crate for the flight to Moscow. Because in-flight meals are not standard for snakes, the critters were fed about a week before the journey. Their plywood box was lined with styrofoam to keep the rattlers warm when they arrived at their destination. The foam was removed to keep the Mamushi snakes cool when they were shipped to the United States in the same box.
The rattlers became permanent residents of the Moscow Zoo, while the Mamushis slithered into their new quarters at the St. Louis Zoo. Once adjusted to their new surroundings, the Mamushis will have their venom carefully milked and sent to the UA College of Pharmacy for toxicology testing under the direction of Paul Consroe, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.
Results of the venom research could lead to better ways to treat snake bite victims a half world away from the Poison Center in Tucson. Long involved in poison prevention efforts statewide, Poison Center specialists are eager to spread their knowledge of snake bite treatments to rural areas of Arizona-or Khazakstan.
"Sharing poison-prevention information with the state and the world is the greatest good we can offer," McNally says.
The Poison Center serves as a round-the-clock watchdog for Arizona parents, paramedics, physicians, police, firefighters, scientists and researchers. The Center is manned by pharmacists with special certification in poison information. Since formal establishment by the Arizona legislature in 1979, the phones have literally never stopped ringing. Calls to the Center come in at the rate of 70,000 a year on questions ranging from medication troubles to household product poisonings to bites and stings.
-By David Von Behren
College of Pharmacy Research Explores Environment, Economics
Managing poison information is just one of several health care missions at the UA College of Pharmacy. At the Center for Toxicology, pharmacy researchers play a crucial role in guiding the clean-up of the nation's hazardous waste sites. Pharmacy faculty members serve as the focal point for the UA interdisciplinary research effort in the nation's multi-million dollar Superfund basic research program. As part of the Center for Toxicology, the Southwestern Environmental Health Sciences Center investigates how environmental chemicals affect human health.
The Center for Pharmaceutical Economics, pioneered by J. Lyle Bootman, Ph.D., dean and professor at the College of Pharmacy, looks at economic analyses in health care. Ultimately, the center's research, educational and clinical programs should lead to lower costs, not just for drug medications, but for the entire health care system.
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