Snake venom to treat high blood pressure?

I love PBS. Sunday nights will usually find me watching Masterpiece  and Monday is of course Antiques Roadshow. But the best thing about PBS is how I'm always surprised and interested in learning about what is on, no matter what it is. 

Last week I happened to catch an episode of Nova. This particular one focused on snake venom, with the last portion looking at potential uses for venom and its compounds. An especially fascinating part was hearing how snake venom played a role in developing, ACE inhibitors, a widely used class of drugs for treating high blood pressure among other things. Skip to 43:50 in the video below if you're interested in learning more about snake venom and medicine. 



Read more in this 2003 issue of Breakthroughs in Bioscience from the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB).