How is it possible for animals to produce things like venoms and poisons without being harmed?
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In short, they make their own antidote.
You are familiar with Anti-venom yes? This is derived from Horse Serum (part of their blood), because horses can produce antibodies to most snake bites. Venomous creatures also do this to protect themselves.
Sometimes it’s because of where the venom is, and the creature would indeed be harmed if the venom made its way into their blood, but because the venom sacs keep the venom separate, it’s not an issue.
Sometimes it’s because it reacts with some biology that is different in different animals. Sometimes an animal will be resistant to poison produced by something it eats, and in some cases can even accumulate that poison for its own defense. An example of this is poison dart frogs.
It evolves really slowly over time, and your species evolves with it. It might start as slightly acidic saliva, and millions of years later be poisonous to other species. But you’ve adapted, sometimes biochemically, along the way.
It’s immune system protects it. They have special antibodies that keep it from harming cells.
You as a human can produce stomach acid so strong it can disolve stainless steel, and you are not harmed either 😀
Said the person with a bath of hydrochloric acid roiling in their guts. Bodies are amazing!
Some toxins do not activate unless they see distinctly human chemicals. All of our cells have sugars and proteins on the outside, different sugars/proteins indicate different types of cells. If the toxin attaches to a sugar it knows is found in human lungs, it will turn on. Otherwise it just floats around harmlessly.
It’s like a gun with a safety on, or taser with no batteries, until it connects to the right cell. This is one method of toxin activation, but there are others as well.
I heard they wrapped it up quickly so they could start on the new show called “Vinyl”. Which was cancelled after 1 season.
Still kinda bitter about that one.
We have stomach acid that has a pH of 2.0 or less. So why doesn’t it harm us by essentially “digesting” us? Mucus covers the stomach wall with a protective coating. We also have bicarbonate which neutralizes it and makes sure that the stomach wall itself is not damaged by the hydrochloric acid.
It’s in a part of our body with measures to make sure it stays in that part of the body and doesn’t harm anything else. Same principle applies to venom in animals.
We have stomach acid which is quite toxic. If you inject it to someone’s vein, effect will be not too different from hemotoxin.
Fortunately, our stomach is lined with mucus and tissues that are resistant to it.
But of course, it’s different case for puffer fish and Comodo dragon
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