Recreating Toxins.

[secret]

Hello,

I have been thinking lately and trying to discover if it is possible to chemically reproduce animal poisons. For example, let's use a Sydney Funnel-Web spider for instance; most of us know that it carries one of the most potent poisons within it. Therefore, would it be possible to recreate the exact poison that a Funnel-Web naturally produces by using chemicals?

If so, why is it that we milk spiders to create anti-venom when we can simply reproduce the venom itself using chemicals?

[Dr.Stein]

I think it is possible as long as we know the chemical formula for the poison. We can produce synthetic hormones -- though it is not exactly the same structure but it has somewhat similar potential -- then why don't we able do the same for toxins?

[Darby]

These toxins are often proteins, not something you could easily whip up in a lab, and they might not be particularly storage-friendly either.

I'm pretty sure that most synthetic hormones are lipid-based, rather than proteins - we're still using genetic transfer and living sources like bacteria to make protein-based hormones, and that would be very tricky for making a toxin.

[dipjyoti]

Some times animals also resistant to poison. I also think, it is also possible to chemically reproduce poisons.
Antivenin or Antivenom is created by injecting a small amount of the targeted venom into an animal such as a horse, sheep, goat, or rabbit; the subject animal will suffer an immune response to the venom, producing antibodies against the venom's active molecule which can then be harvested from the animal's blood and used to treat envenomation in others.

Thank You.
Dip Jyoti Chakraborty

[MrMistery]

yes, but how does that help us to artificially produce a poison? You can produce it with recombinant DNA technology in a bacteria i think, but not in a lab..

[Dr.Stein]

Well we do recombinant DNA technology in a lab, not in the field