Here is another example of why "keeping all the cogs and wheels" in our natural world intact offers benefits for us human animals..............Opossums might be the only animal who can be bitten by a poisonous snake and yet suffer no ill effects......... Claire F. Komives, Ph.D., who is at San Jose State University, revealed recently that initial studies showing the Opossum's immunity to snake venom were done in the 1940s................ In the early 1990's, a group of researchers identified a serum protein from the Opossum that was able to neutralize snake venoms.................... One researcher, B. V. Lipps, Ph.D., found that a smaller chain of amino acids from the Opossum protein, called a peptide, was also able to neutralize the venom.................It appears that the venom protein may bind to the peptide, rendering it no longer toxic..................San Jose State Scientists plan to produce and test a serum that would only require one application to neutralize the snake poisons in humans..........

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150322080201.htm?utm_source=feedburner

Opossum-based antidote to venom from snake bites could save th

ousands of lives

Date:

March 22, 2015

Source:

American Chemical Society (ACS)