Venomous animals have evolved with sophisticated bio-chemical strategies to arrest prey and defend themselves from natural predators. In recent years, peptide toxins from venomous animals have drawn considerable attention from researchers due to their surprising chemical, biochemical, and pharmacological diversity. Similar to other venomous animals, centipedes are one of the crucial venomous ar...

Scorpions and their venoms have been employed in medication since thousands of years in Asia. The scorpion venom is an extremely advanced mixture of salts, nucleotides, biogenic amines, enzymes, mucoproteins, peptides and proteins (e.g. Neurotoxins). Scorpion venoms contain peptides that block or modify ion-channel function and present some doable applications to regulate cell excitability. Spe...

Temperature can profoundly affect many physiological processes, including muscle performance. Many ectotherms appear sensitive to this relationship, choosing times and locations of activity permitting high body temperatures and, thus, quick escape from predators. High body temperatures, however, can lead to dehydration, which in turn affects muscle performance. Striped bark scorpions Centruroid...

The resistance of the scorpion Androctonus australis to its own venom, as well as to the venom of other species, was investigated. A comparison of the electrical and pharmacological properties of muscle and nerve fibres from Androctonus australis with those from the crayfish Procambarus clarkii enabled us to understand the lack of effect of scorpion venom (110-180 microg ml-1) and purified toxi...

Scorpion stings are currently the leading cause of venom-related injury to humans in Brazil and are a significant public health problem globally. Only scorpions of the Tityus genus are of medical importance in Brazil, and Tityus serrulatus is responsible for the most serious envenomations and deaths. The toxic effects of scorpion envenomation are due to a massive release of sympathetic and para...

BACKGROUND Colombia and Brazil are affected by severe cases of scorpionism. In Colombia the most dangerous accidents are caused by Tityus pachyurus that is widely distributed around this country. In the Brazilian Amazonian region scorpion stings are a common event caused by Tityus obscurus. The main objective of this work was to perform the molecular cloning of the putative Na(+)-channel scorpi...

S Navidpour , S. , Kovar í k , F. , Fet , V. , and Soleglad , M. E. ( 2008 ) . Scorpions of Iran (Arachnida, Scorpiones). Part III. Ilam Province . Euscorpius 69 , 1 – 29 . Polis , G. A. (ed.) ( 1990 ) . “ The Biology of Scorpions . ” Stanford University Press , Stanford, CA . Prendini , L. ( 2000 ) . Phylogeny and classifi cation of the superfamily Scorpionoidea Latreille 1802 (Chelicerata, Sc...

Neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of individuals worldwide. So far, no disease-modifying drug is available to treat patients, making the search for effective drugs an urgent need. Neurodegeneration is triggered by the activation of several cellular processes, including oxidative stress, mitochondrial impairment, neuroinflammation, aging, aggregate formation, glutamatergic excitotoxicit...