Anti-bacterial potentials of Snake venoms-A Review (original) (raw)

Bacterial infections are the top 10 th most leading cause of death according to World Health Organization. Number of antibiotics are available for the treatment of bacterial infections, but the major problem nowadays is multi drug resistance of bacteria. The majority of bacteria such as Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Acinetobacter, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Methicillin Resistant S. aureus (MRSA), Enterococcus and penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae (PRSP) vancomycin-resistant enterococci have developed resistance against antibiotics.So,it has become necessary that we should explore new sources of therapeutic agents that are effective against bacteria, specifically multi drug resistant bacteria. Nature is always a good source, new drugs have been developed from various sources of plants, animals etc. Snake venoms contain a great variety of biologically active proteins, it contains specialized compounds having anti-bacterial activity which include phospholipases A2 (PLA2), L-amino acid oxidases (LAAO) etc. The biodiversity of snake venoms and toxins make them unique source from which novel therapeutics may be developed. Snake venom has been used in the treatment of a variety of pathophysiological conditions in Ayurveda, homeopathy and folk medicine. With the advent of biotechnology, the efficacy of such treatments has been proved by purifying components of venom and representing their therapeutic properties. In this review the anti-bacterial potential of snake venom is discussed. This review shows that snake venoms are not unexplored source of antibiotics and we are hopeful about its application for the anti-bacterial drug development in near future.

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