Despite numerous studies concerning morphology and venom production and secretion in the main venom gland (and some data on the accessory gland) of the venom glandular apparatus of Viperidae snakes, the primary duct has been overlooked. We characterized the primary duct of the Bothrops jararaca snake by morphological analysis, immunohistochemistry and proteomics. The duct has a pseudostratified...

Snake-bite is a life-threatening medical emergency & major public health problem throughout the World, especially in tropical countries like India. The annual death rate due to snake bite in India is estimated to be 4.1 per 1,00,000 population while in Maharashtra, it is 3.0 per 1,00,000 population. The objective of this study is to observe the management of snake bite and their outcome in cent...

Venomous snakes have evolved their efficient venomous arsenals mainly to immobilize prey. The highly variable toxic peptides in these venoms target a myriad of neurotoxic and haemotoxic receptors and enzymes and comprise highly interesting candidates for drug discovery. Discovery of bioactive compounds from snake venoms, however, is a challenge to achieve. We have developed and applied a method...

Venom is a key innovation underlying the evolution of advanced snakes (Caenophidia). Despite this, very little is known about venom system structural diversification, toxin recruitment event timings, or toxin molecular evolution. A multidisciplinary approach was used to examine the diversification of the venom system and associated toxins across the full range of the approximately 100 million-y...

CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was. Abstract The genetic and genomic mechanisms underlying evolutionary innovations are of fundamental importance to our understanding of animal evolution. Snake venom represents one such innovation and has been hypothesised to have originate...

In Africa, the most notorious of snake species is the black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis). It is feared for its potent rapid-acting venom [7] and its characteristic feature of typically striking more than once. The problem is that it always injects venom in its bite. So a bite from this species has an almost 100% fatality rate if left untreated. Other venomous African snake species that pose a ...

Jay W. Fox and José María Gutiérrez recently finished editing a Special Issue on the topic "Snake Venom Metalloproteinases" in Toxins. The Special Issue covers a wide range of topics, including the molecular evolution and structure of snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs), the mechanisms involved in the generation of diversity of SVMPs, the mechanism of action of SVMPs, and their role in the p...