Venomous varmint could offer ways to deal with cancer

Don’t be too quick to stomp on that spider running across your livingroom floor - its relations might one day save your life.

A scientist at NUI Galway is studying the use of spider venom as a way to knock out cancer cells.

Dr Michel Dugon believes spiders have huge untapped potential to provide useful biological agents that can be used against cancers.

"All spiders in the world are venomous," says Dr Dugon, an Irish Research Council Fellow in botany, and zoology lecturer in the school of natural sciences.

There are more than 40,000 known species and each has a different type of venom, but to date less than 100 species have been investigated for their therapeutic potential, he says.

“These are active compounds that have evolved to kill prey so they are very active in disrupting the biochemistry of other organisms. That makes them a fantastic therapeutic source for us,” he says.

Taking such cues from animal-related compounds is not fanciful, given snake venom has already been used to develop medication for stroke and blood clots and a biochemical discovered in a marine snail has led to a new anaesthetic, he says.

“My research specialisation is venomous systems in animals and I have worked with snakes, giant centipedes and now I am working with spiders.”

He got an Irish Research Council grant to set up the Venom Systems and Proteomics Lab in the university's Ryan Institute and has carried out a range of early experiments using venom from the false black widow spider, Steatoda nobilis.

An established ‘local’

This species is invasive but it has spread all over Ireland since its introduction in 1997 and is now an established “local”.

“I choose this local species because it has a pretty bad reputation in the media. It is described as dangerous, but its venom has never been investigated properly,” Dr Dugon says.

Healthy human cells and breast cancer cells have been treated with the venom so far and gave unexpected results. “It kills healthy cells at a massive rate but the cancer cells are quite resistant to the venom,” he says.

He plans to use other tissue cultures as he seeks to learn more about the venom and its properties.

Other departments and scientists are involved in the research, including Profs Afshin Samali in biochemistry and Lokesh Joshi, vice president of research at NUI Galway.