Snake venom component protects against COVID-19

Russian biologists have preserved a human cell cult from contracting novel coronavirus using enzymes in the venom of vipers and other snakes that belong to the phospholipase family.

According to Report, the article, which reflects the preliminary results of their experiments, was published by the electronic scientific library bioRxiv.

Russian scientists, led by Yuri Utkin, head of the laboratory at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, analyzed the structure of PLA2 molecules from the venom of several species of vipers and studied how they affect SARS-CoV-2.

It turned out that all forms of snake venom in one form or another stopped the virus from multiplying in the cell cult. The most effective was the venom of the Nikolsky viper. The poison destroyed the COVID-19 and blocked its interaction with receptors on the cell surface.

The main range of the Nikolsky snake is the European part of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Romania.