Snake venom observed to kill prostate cancer cells

the-star.co.ke · Feb 27, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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Snake venom may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about medicine.It is designed to kill by slowly shutting down nerves and destroying body tissue. But what if the same lethal venom could be trained to kill cancer instead? That question drew attention at the Kenya Medical Research Institute’s Annual Scientific and Health (Kash) Conference in Nairobi recently.Drug discovery scientist Dr Sospeter Njeru said early laboratory tests show that venom from some Kenyan snakes can kill cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells largely unharmed.“What shocked us was that some venoms were active against cancer cells, while sparing normal cells,” Dr Njeru said. “This selectivity is what defines a potential drug.”Dr Njeru is also the acting deputy director and centre head at Kemri’s Centre for Clinical and Diagnostic Research in Kirinyaga county.He and his team tested venom from four snake species found in Kenya. These included the black mamba, the puff adder, the spitting cobra and the Egyptian cobra.In the laboratory, researchers exposed prostate cancer cells to different concentrations of venom. They then tested the same doses on healthy, non-cancerous cells to see what would happen.Three of the four venoms showed anti-cancer activity. One did not.“We exposed different concentrations of venom to cancer cells and normal cells. The venom killed cancer cells at very low doses yet required higher doses to affect healthy cells. That was remarkable,” Dr Njeru told the Star.“That difference is important in drug development. A good cancer drug should attack tumour cells more than it attacks normal cells.”Snakebite is a serious public health problem in Kenya. National estimates suggest that up to 20,000 Kenyans are bitten annually. Around 4,000 deaths are reported each year, although experts believe the real number may be higher because many cases go unreported.Dr Njeru said venom is made up of many proteins and peptides. These molecules affect how cells behave. Some can interfere with blood clotting while others can affect nerves or muscles.Using snake venom for healing is not a necessarily new idea, but this is the first study in Kenya to prove they can kill cancer cells while sparing healthy ones.Around the world, the Chinese have used snake venoms to treat illnesses for thousands of years.Several venom products were US Food and Drug Authority-approved injectable drugs in the early 1900s and up to mid-last century.But they fell out of favour after the 1960s mostly because synthetic pharmaceutical drugs were assumed to be more effective.Dr Njeru said the idea for the study came from a simple scientific principle. The difference between a poison and a drug often depends on the dose.“We cannot condemn venoms as having only general toxicity,” he said. “They are selective. They go for cancer cells and give normal cells a chance to survive.”The research is still at an early stage and the experiments have only been done in the lab using prostate cancer cell lines. No animal or human studies have been carried out yet.Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the country. Recent estimates show more than 3,500 new prostate cancer cases are diagnosed in Kenya each year. More than 2,000 men die from the disease annually. Many patients are diagnosed late, when the cancer has already spread.The next step is to separate the venom into its different components. This process, known as fractionation, allows scientists to identify the exact molecules responsible for the anti-cancer effect.“Our next steps will test mechanisms and isolate active molecules before any talk of treatment,” Dr Njeru said. “We need to understand how these venoms act. Are they blocking the spread of cancer? Are they triggering cell death? These are the questions we must answer.”Cancer spreads when abnormal cells divide rapidly and move to other parts of the body. If a compound can stop that spread or trigger cancer cells to destroy themselves through a process known as apoptosis, it could become a powerful tool in treatment.Researchers around the world have already identified several venom-derived molecules that show anti-cancer activity in laboratory studies. Some snake venom proteins have been found to slow tumour growth or interfere with cancer cell movement. However, turning these findings into approved medicines takes many years of testing for safety and effectiveness.Dr Njeru stressed that his team’s findings should not raise false hope.“We are excited about what we see, but this is early stage,” he said. “Lab results do not automatically mean we have a cure. We still have to test safety carefully and go through a long scientific process.”Kenya is home to more than 140 snake species, but 75 per cent of these are harmless to people.Dr Njeru says this research is also about changing how people think.“We have always seen snakes as evil or as a problem,” he said. “But nature can also hide solutions in the same things we fear. Science allows us to look at them differently.”