- The world's oceans are one of the least
explored places on the planet Earth.
Yet they cover more than 70 percent of its surface.
In fact, we know more about the surface of the moon
than we do the bottom of the sea.
And due to pollution, ocean acidification,
climate change, all those unexplored expanses
that house untold numbers of species
but they are threatened, if not already destroyed.
This is particularly concerning
when you learn that the venoms and compounds
produced by sea animals can often be repurposed
as medicines to treat horrible diseases that affect us all.
Hi, guys and girls.
I'm ReefMan, and this video is all about using
sea anemone venom to treat various types of cancer.
And it's true.
Sea anemones in particular have been showing
a lot of promise in treating cancer.
Now of course, you can't just rub a sea anemone
on your cancer and then have it be gone overnight.
It's very early, but with time these compounds
can be developed into chemotherapy drugs.
That's why it's worth protecting the environment.
We don't know what we don't know.
So why sea anemones?
Well, Cnidaria is the phylum that contains all the coral,
jellyfish, anemones, things like that,
is characterized by everything
having a type of cell, the nematocyte.
This is the cell in our coral,
in anemones, in all Cnidaria that houses the nematocyst.
That's the explosive dart that shoots out upon contact
and that injects venom
into whatever it can then embed itself in.
That's what makes anemones sticky.
That's why jellyfish tentacles stick to you.
And they're the distinguishing feature
of all members of the phylum Cnidaria.
Now, of all the Cnidaria that we've so far studied,
sea anemone nematocysts have the most interesting venom.
For some reason, it's much more stable
than the venom of our corals or that of jellyfish.
And this stability makes it interesting
as a potential source of drugs.
It doesn't decompose quickly
and that means the resulting drugs
have a longer shelf life.
Now, if you needed to have a tank full of live jellyfish
in your hospital room for treatment,
well, it might be relaxing and nice to look at,
but that drug is just not gonna be realistic one
that you can actually use.
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death.
In 2020, over 600,000 people will die
of cancer in the United States alone.
Chemotherapy drugs like Doxorubicin and Vincristine
were first discovered in nature,
in periwinkles and bacteria,
yet they have extensive side effects
and we're all aware of those.
Finding new drugs might lead us to chemotherapy drugs
that work better with fewer side effects,
and sea anemone venom is already showing
lots of promise in the lab.
Some species, like Heteractis malu,
produce venom that is active against breast cancer.
Others, like Bunodeposis globuliferia,
are being studied for use in lung cancer.
And in fact, there's more than 32 different species
of sea anemone being investigated
for anticancer drugs around the world today.
Imagine what we don't know about yet,
waiting just under the waves of your closest beach.
Even anemones that we commonly keep in our tanks
like Heteractis magnifica have venom
that is useful for chemo drugs.
Of course, all these research takes time.
Lots of chemicals will kill things in a trial,
the trick is figuring out a way to keep you alive
while killing the cancer inside of you dead.
Since these studies take so long,
it's important to keep the wild reservoir
of all these species available.
It's important to protect our natural resources
so that we have them to study
for things like this in the future.
I hope you enjoyed the video.
It's a really huge issue, of course.
And of course, none of us can solve
these sorts of things alone.
Together we can make a difference
and it's never been a better time
to start making a difference than it is right now.
Think about the environment around you.
Yeah, I get it.
This video, my channel, it's all about reefs,
coral reefs that kinda stuff.
But these sorts of compounds come from plants
in rainforests and things like that.
And sometimes the plants that you might have growing
in your neighborhood forest.
We don't know what we don't know,
so it's important to protect
at least some part of the world
so that we can have it to study
for things like this in the future.
Thanks for watching.
I will see you next time.
Stay safe, have a great day, bye!