TUSCALOOSA | Fortunately for humans, Gila monsters have a unique protein in their venom that could help treat diabetes.
Unfortunately for the Gila monsters, not a great deal is known about the protein benefits for the lizards.
“By understanding how this protein acts in this native organism, you can understand what more it would do in other animals," said researcher Carol Christel while holding one of the lizards in her hands.
Christel, a doctorial student at Arizona State University, is hoping to write her dissertation on the digestive system of the United State’s only poisonous lizard. She and her professor are in Tuscaloosa to study with an expert on reptile digestion, Stephen Secor.
“There is a tremendous overlap in what these animals do to what is done in humans so there’s not a tremendous jump," the University of Alabama biology professor said. “We know so little about all this type of information --digestion -- in animals."
Christel brought 18 of the lizards, found mostly in the southwestern states and northern Mexico, to UA so Secor could study them. The lizard is a rare find in the wild, so getting some to study is difficult.
“We had the Gila Monsters, and he had the expertise, so we just brought them together," Christel said.
Dale Denardo, Christel’s professor, said the lizards are obtained when human development takes its territory and become a nuisance. Gila Monsters are not able to adapt to new surrounding and perish soon after being moved to a new habitat, even just a few miles away, he said.
Rather than kill them, ASU takes them for research.
It is one of only two poisonous lizards in the world. The other is the Mexican beaded lizard, similar to a Gila Monster. Their venom is not as potent to humans as snake venom.
But for the Gila’s prey – litters of rodents or rabbits – the venom is enough. They also eat bird eggs.
Unlike humans who eat at least twice a day, Gila Monsters feast two or three times each year, Secor said.
They survive by storing fat in their tails.
The protein, exendin-4, helps maintain and control insulin and glucose in the lizard during the long periods between meals. In humans, researchers found the protein lasts longer than other drugs, and the pharmaceutical company Amylin is working to commercialize a drug.
The lizard can make the protein by gnawing on anything, but fortunately for the Gilla Monster, the protein can be made synthetically.
Christel and DeNardo arrived Sunday and leave Thursday, but the Gila Monsters who weren’t euthanized for the experiment will stay with Secor for further tests.
The research is not geared to create a patent or drug, but to further understand how the protein works in the lizard and how its digestive system works.
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