We are always interested in new health breakthroughs on the horizon. We want our customers to have many tools to manage their blood sugar and wellness. New research has found that a toxin from one of the world’s most venomous animals may help with hormone disorders and blood sugar concerns.
A deadly marine cone snail’s venom contains consomatin. It is similar to the human hormone somatostatin. Somatostatin prevents high levels of sugar or other hormones in the blood. Consomatin does too, but in a far more focused way. It brings blood sugar low and stops it from rising as a way of harming their prey. It leaves the prey unconscious — essentially in a coma from low blood sugar.
Snails naturally developed the venom to hunt; it was a survival mechanism that happened within their body. “We’ve been trying to do medicinal chemistry and drug development for a few hundred years, sometimes badly,” said Dr. Helena Safavi who led the research at the Univ. of Utah. “Cone snails have had a lot of time to do it really well.”
“Cone snails are just really good chemists,” said Dr. Ho Yan Yeung who worked on the research.
Consomatin is more stable and specific than somatostatin. That makes it an excellent jumping-off point for medications. Somatostatin interacts with several proteins and impacts many other molecules. Consomatin only affects blood sugar and hormone levels. Consomatin also lasts for a long time in the body, far longer than somatostatin.
Consomatin is too dangerous to be used to lower blood sugar in its natural state. It is a weapon animals use to hunt food, not a drug. But studying it could unlock new medications.
Dr. Safavi described using consomatin as “a bit of a shortcut” for medicinal chemists. It isn’t a solution in and of itself. But, it points their research in a better direction and gives them something to build on.
Research like this gives us a lot of hope. We hear from our customers all the time that they are dissatisfied with their current medications. Medications are an essential aspect of managing health and reaching goals. Having the best tools available is necessary to help people achieve their desired results. This study, and studies like it, show that developments are continually being made to help people with blood sugar concerns. You can take your health into your own hands through diet, exercise, healthy habits and a routine you discuss with your doctor. Someday, medication based on this deadly snail may be part of that routine.
