Short- and long-chain alpha-neurotoxins from snake venoms are potent blockers of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Short alpha-neurotoxins consist of 60-62 amino acid residues and include 4 disulfide bridges, whereas long alpha-neurotoxins have 66-75 residues and 5 disulfides. The spatial structure of these toxins is built by three loops, I-III "fingers," confined by four disulfide br...

Cardiotoxin III (CTXIII), isolated from the snake venom of Formosan cobra Naja naja atra, has previously been found to induce apoptosis in many types of cancer. Early metastasis is typical for the progression of oral cancer. To modulate the cell migration behavior of oral cancer is one of the oral cancer therapies. In this study, the possible modulating effect of CTXIII on oral cancer migration...

A kinetic analysis is presented for the dependence of one form of phospholipase A(2) from cobra (Naja naja) venom on the presence of the nonionic detergent Triton X-100 for its activity towards egg phosphatidylcholine and synthetic dipalmitoyl glycerophosphorylcholine as substrates. An automatic recording pH-stat apparatus was employed in order to continuously monitor enzyme activity. The resul...

Many medicinal plants have been recommended for the treatment of snakebites. Aqueous and alcoholic extracts of dried seed powder of Tamarindus indica were tested for their antioxidant and inhibitory activity of toxic enzymes like PLA2 and proteinases of Naja naja venom. Compared with alcoholic extracts the methanolic extract, displayed a significant inhibitory effect on the tested enzyme activi...

The cardiotoxin analogue III (CTX III), isolated from the Taiwan cobra (Naja naja atra) venom, is a sixty-amino acid, all beta-sheet protein. We report the direct expression of CTX III from its synthetic gene as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli. The yield of the expressed protein is about 40 mg/liter of the culture. CTX III trapped as inclusion bodies is dissolved and refolded by the slow r...

Cobra venoms contain heat stable, basic, proteins that inhibit iodide accumulation by thyroid slices. Activity is not related to the content of phospholipase A or various other enzymatic activities. These proteins are present only in Elapid venoms and not in snakes of the Crotalidae or Viperidae families. Two such basic proteins, named cobramines A and B, have been purified from the crude venom...

The antivenom properties of methanolic extract of Ficus iteophylla miq and Borassus aethiopum plants were investigated against the venom of Naja mossandica snake. Both plant extracts effectively reduced the Naja mossandica venom induced hemolytic activity. The result reveals that hemolysis due to venom was 81.5% without extract but the heomolytic activity was drastically reduced by Ficus iteoph...