Rhopalurus junceus scorpion venom has demonstrated high cytotoxic activity in epithelial cancer cells. In the present study, the effect of scorpion venom on cell viability and apoptosis was evaluated in the MDA-MB-231 human breast carcinoma cell line. Cell viability was analyzed using MTT assay. The cell death event was examined trough end-point RT-PCR to identify the expression of apoptosis-re...

Scorpions use their venom in defensive situations as well as for subduing prey. Since some species of scorpion use their venom more in defensive situations than others, this may have led to selection for differences in effectiveness in defensive situations. Here, we compared the LD50 of the venom of 10 species of scorpions on five different species of target organisms; two insects and three ver...

The pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus), a gleaning bat found in the western United States and Mexico, hunts a wide variety of ground-dwelling prey, including scorpions. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the pallid bat is resistant to scorpion venom, but no systematic study has been performed. Here we show with behavioral measures and direct injection of venom that the pallid bat is resistant to ven...

Background: Scorpion sting envenomation generally causes treatable local and systemic effects; however, in rare cases, the victims might experience sequels in end organs such as central nervous system. In the present paper, a case of relatively self-limiting demyelinating polyneuropathy following a Butidae sting is presented and the possible mechanisms are discussed.  Case Presentation: A 19-y...

This brief review summarizes the studies in systematics and zoogeography of European scorpions. The current “splitting” trend in scorpion taxonomy is only a reasonable response to the former “lumping.” Our better understanding of scorpion systematics became possible due to the availability of new morphological characters and molecular techniques, as well as of new material. Many taxa and local ...

background and objective: scorpion sting and snakebite are the important problems in some area such as iran that must be addressed. this study was to investigate temporal pattern of scorpion sting and snakebite incidence in patients referred to masjedsoleiman’s main hospital, during 24 months from 21 march 2008 to 20 march 2009. materials and methods: it was an analytical study to scrutiny of m...

Scorpion venom contains a variety of biologically active peptides. Among them, neurotoxins are major components in the venom, but it also peptides that show antimicrobial activity. Previously, we identified three insecticidal from Liocheles australasiae scorpion, activities and structures other remained unknown. In this study, performed transcriptome analysis gland scorpion L. to gain comprehen...

[3H]Saxitoxin binds to a single class of receptor sites in rat brain synaptosomes and in broken membrane fractions derived from rat brain with a KD of approximately 2 11~ at 36°C. Batrachotoxin and scorpion toxin, which act at different receptor sites to activate sodium channels, have no effect on saxitoxin binding. Osmotic lysis and depolarization also have no effect on saxitoxin binding. Thes...

background: the mesobuthus eupeus scorpion venoms are known to contain α-toxin peptides, many of which interfere with k+ ion channel function. these toxin peptides have important value in  the pharmacology and physiology studies of specific k+ channel of cells. objectives: given the  lack of information of the molecular biology of peptides in the toxin of iranian scorpions, the aim of this stud...

Scorpion bite is common in rural areas of India with self limiting local reaction and pain at envenomation site, however envenomation due to Mesobuthus tamlus (Indian red scorpion) some time have uncommon systemic manifestation like myocarditis, pulmonary edema, pancreatitis, defibrination syndrome, DIC and CNS manifestation due to hemorrhagic infarct, all these systemic manifestation is corrob...