The deadly snake venom is a medicine to save people...the infinite transformation of a snake

[Anchor]
This year is the Year of the Snake.

In the past, snakes were considered evasive animals because there was a great perception that snakes would die when bitten.

With the recent development of science and technology, snakes are being applied in a variety of fields, from medicines that save humans to the exploration of distant celestial bodies outside the Earth.

This is reporter Lee Sung-kyu.

[Reporter]
High blood pressure
, one of the most common chronic diseases
The protein ACE in our body works to increase blood pressure by constricting blood vessels.

Scientists discovered a substance that inhibits the action of ACE proteins in the poison of Salmosa, a deadly poison, and developed it as a treatment for high blood pressure.

It is the first drug 'captolyl' approved by the U.S. FDA in 1981 based on animal venom.

[Hong Jin-tae / Professor of Pharmacy at Chungbuk National University] There are many proteins inside the toxin, and we found them well and developed them through research. There are a lot of different kinds. My case was a substance called cobra toxin....]

[Reporter]
The possibility of developing new anticancer drugs is growing as a series of studies have shown that snake toxins are effective not only for high blood pressure but also for cancer recently.

In 2023, Brazilian researchers published a study showing that proteins isolated from snake venom induce the death of melanoma cancer cells, a type of skin cancer.

The researchers expected that the therapeutic effect would be greater if this substance was used in combination with existing anticancer drugs.

If snake venom is applied as a medicine, robots for exploration and rescue purposes that simulate snakes are being developed one after another because snakes easily pass through narrow holes that are difficult for humans to enter.

The snake-shaped robot, which is 4 meters long and weighs 100 kilograms, moves quickly on the snow like a snake crawling.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the United States developed the robot in the idea of exploring the underground sea by diving between the surface of Saturn's ice moon Enceladus.

The robot is designed to automatically detect the surroundings and create and move around on its own.

In 2021, the Korea Institute of Robot Convergence unveiled a snake robot that can crawl like a snake to find survivors at disaster sites and urgently supply drugs to survivors if necessary.

I'm Lee Sung Kyu of YTN Science.