Anti-retro viral action of snake venom in homoeopathy

Prof. Dr.S. Praveen Kumar, DHMS,MBS(H),MD(HOM),(Ph.D)
H.O.D, Dept. Of Medicine. JSPS Homoeopathy Medical Colege
Assoc. Editor, NJH.
Trustee & P.R.O, Global Homeopathy Foundation

Dr.Prathama. S. Mainkar
Fellow of Scientist, I.I.C.T,Hyderabad

Research study has been taken up with the help and full involvement of Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad.

History
Reverse transcriptases were discovered by Howard Temin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in RSV virions,and independently isolated by David Baltimore in 1970 at MIT from two RNA tumour viruses: R-MLV and again RSV.

For their achievements, both shared the 1975  Nobel Prize in Physiology; (with Roneto Dolbecco).

A Reverse transcriptase (RT) is an enzyme used to generate complementary DNA (cDNA) from an RNA template, a process termed reverse transcription.

RT is needed for the replication of retroviruses (e.g., HIV), and RT inhibitors are widely used as antiretroviral drugs.

Reverse transcriptase is present in viruses like HIV, Hepatitis B, Respiratory Syncitial Viruses, moloney Murine Leukaemia Virus, Dengue, west Nile Virus,Type A Inflenza virus, Yellow Fever Virus, Oncogenic RNA Viruses and EBOLA Viruses.

These activities are used by the retrovirus to convert single-stranded genomic RNA into double-stranded cDNA which can integrate into the host genome, potentially generating a long-term infection that can be very difficult to eradicate.

The enzymes are encoded and used by reverse transcribing viruses , which use the enzyme during the process of replication. Reverse-transcribing RNA viruses such as retroviruses use the enzyme to reverse-transcribe their RNA genomes into DNA, which is then integrated into the host genome and replicated along with it. Reverse-transcribing DNA viruses, such as the hepadnaviruses, can allow RNA to serve as a template in assembling, and making DNA strands.

HIV infects humans with the use of this enzyme

Without reverse transcriptase, the viral genome would not be able to incorporate into the host cell, resulting in failure to replicate.

Though there are several methods for doing so, cDNA is most often synthesized from mature (fully spliced) mRNA using the enzyme reverse transcriptase.

This enzyme, which naturally occurs in retroviruses, operates on a single strand of mRNA, generating its complementary DNA based on the pairing of RNA base pairs (A, U, G and C) to their DNA complements (T, A, C and G respectively).

Experiment
Homoeo Compound
Crotalus Horridus 30 was used as homoeo compound.

It was obtained from 5 different pharmacies viz; Willmar Schwabe, Bioforce, SBL, Bakson’s and Ramakrishna.

As the dilution contains Alcohol it was put for Evaporation and thus obtained material was used for the experiment.

Crotalus horridus

• Commonly known as timber rattlesnake, canebreak rattlesnake or banded rattlesnake
• A venomous pit viper found in eastern parts of United States
• Produces high venom yield

Venom comprises of

• Type A-Neurotoxic
• Type B-Hemmorrhagic and proteolyic
• Type A +B
• Type C-Relatively weak and contains none of the above components

Enzymes present

• Peptide that works as a myotoxin
• Fibrinogen clotting enzyme
• Bradykinin-releasing enzyme

This RNA template of HIV virus was exposed two compounds….1.Crot Hor 2. Nuclease free water as a Control.

Then they were studied for the amplification on the meter to check for the production of cDNA as this is produced by the HIV viral RNA by using the Reverse Transcriptase.

Result
The Absence of Amplification of constitutive gene in Reaction 1 confirms that the cDNA synthesis was inhibited, thus concluding that the compound inhibits Reverse transcriptase enzyme.

Further Plan
IICT approached National Institute of Virology to test the same CROTALUS HOR in HIV, HEP B & EBOLA Viruses.

Permissions are awaited.
Clinical Trials are already initiated to test the efficacy of CROT HOR in these Viruses infected patients.

Courtesy : The paper orginally presented in world homoeopathy submit at Mumbai by Global Homoeopathy Foundation (GHF)