Cnidarian venom research has lagged behind other toxinological fields due to technical difficulties in recovery of the complex venom from the microscopic nematocysts. Here we report a newly developed rapid, repeatable and cost effective technique of venom preparation, using ethanol to induce nematocyst discharge and to recover venom contents in one step. Our model species was the Australian box...

Wasp stings have been arising to be a severe public health problem in China in recent years. However, molecular information about lethal or toxic factors in wasp venom is extremely lacking. In this study, we used two pyrosequencing platforms to analyze the transcriptome of Vespa velutina, the most common wasp species native in China. Besides the substantial amount of transcripts encoding for al...

Understanding snake venom pharmacokinetics is essential for developing risk assessment strategies and determining the optimal dose and timing of antivenom required to bind all venom in snakebite patients. This review aims to explore the current knowledge of snake venom pharmacokinetics in animals and humans. Literature searches were conducted using EMBASE (1974-present) and Medline (1946-presen...

Snake venoms are sources of molecules with proven and potential therapeutic applications. However, most activities assayed in venoms (or their components) are of hemorrhagic, hypotensive, edematogenic, neurotoxic or myotoxic natures. Thus, other relevant activities might remain unknown. Using functional genomics coupled to the connectivity map (C-map) approach, we undertook a wide range indirec...

Cone snail venoms are considered an untapped reservoir of extremely diverse peptides, named conopeptides, displaying a wide array of pharmacological activities. We report here for the first time, the presence of high molecular weight compounds that participate in the envenomation cocktail used by these marine snails. Using a combination of proteomic and transcriptomic approaches, we identified ...

Scorpion venoms have been studied for decades, leading to the identification of hundreds of different toxins with medical and pharmacological implications. However, little emphasis has been given to the description of these arthropods from cellular and evolutionary perspectives. In this report, we describe a transcriptomic analysis of the Mexican scorpion Centruroides noxius Hoffmann, performed...

A new 5'-nucleotidase inhibitor named nucleoticidin was produced by Pseudomonas sp. YM-3229G. It was isolated from a fermentation broth by trichloroacetic acid extraction, ethanol precipitation and Dowex 1 and DEAE-52 column chromatography. It inhibited 5'-nucleotidase activity of snake venom and rat liver membrane. It also showed antitumor activity against solid type Sarcoma 180.

Purified preparations of the reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase of the respiratory chain, extracted with the aid of phospholipase at moderate temperature, do not catalyze the reduction of long chain coenzyme Q derivatives (Q6 and QIO) at significant rates and are not inhibited by amytal or rotenone. On exposure of the enzyme to conditions which have been used for the extrac...

Purified preparations of the reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase of the respiratory chain, extracted with the aid of phospholipase at moderate temperature, do not catalyze the reduction of long chain coenzyme Q derivatives (Q6 and QIO) at significant rates and are not inhibited by amytal or rotenone. On exposure of the enzyme to conditions which have been used for the extrac...