The yellow Iranian scorpion Odontobuthus doriae can cause fatal envenoming, but its mechanism of action is unclear. One of the reported manifestations of envenoming is moderate to severe involuntary tremor of skeletal muscle. In order to understand better the mechanism of action of this venom on skeletal muscle function, we examined the effects of the venom in vitro on chick biventer cervicis (...

The alkaloid neurotoxins aconitine, veratridine, grayanotoxin, and batrachotoxin activate the action potential Na+ ionophore by interaction with a common binding site. Concentration-response curves are fit by simple Langmuir isotherms. The fraction of Na+ ionophores activated at saturating concentrations of neurotoxin are: aconitine, 0.02; veratridine, 0.08; grayanotoxin, 0.51; and batrachotoxi...

BACKGROUND Information on scorpion stings is available for many parts of Saudi Arabia, but not for Al-Jouf Province. METHODS We reviewed and analyzed 1449 cases of scorpion stings that presented to the emergency department of the hospitals and medical centers in Al-Jouf Province during a 2-year period (2005-2006). RESULTS The majority of patients (92.7%) manifested class I envenomation with...

INTRODUCTION Envenomation by scorpion stings is a major public health problem in numerous tropical countries because of its frequent incidence and potential severity. Approximately 1,900 species of scorpions are known in the world, and at least 130 of these have been described in Brazil. METHODS This work reports on 3 child deaths caused by Tityus stigmurus stings and characterizes epidemiolo...

Scorpions (order Scorpiones) are unusual among arthropods, both for the extreme heteronomy of their bauplan and for the high gene family turnover exhibited in their genomes. These phenomena appear to be correlated, as two scorpion species have been shown to possess nearly twice the number of Hox genes present in most arthropods. Segmentally offset anterior expression boundaries of a subset of H...

PURPOSE: Scorpion toxin purified from Tityus serrulatus venom (Tx) induces an increase in volume, acidity and pepsin secretion in the gastric juice of rats. Ligation of oesophagus has been shown to reduce the acid gastric secretion in rats. The aim of this paper was to determine the influence of the esophageal ligation on gastric secretion induced by Tx in rats METHODS: Forty-four male albino r...

OBJECTIVES To review the epidemiology of scorpion sting in Qatar, to explore both the clinical significance, and the role of the emergency department (ED) in the management of such cases. METHODS In this retrospective study, we reviewed the records of all scorpion sting cases presented to the ED of Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar between October 2010 and May 2013. RESULTS A total of 111...

Scorpionism is a public health problem in several regions of the world. The highest mortality, with over 1000 deaths per year, has been reported in Mexico. We analysed the significance of climatological variables to predict the incidence of scorpion stings in humans in the state of Colima (Mexico) for the years 2000-2001. The pluvial precipitation (mm), the evaporation (mm), and the mean, maxim...

Several peptide families, including insect antimicrobial peptides, plant protease inhibitors, and ion channel gating modifiers, as well as blockers from scorpions, bear a common CSalphabeta scaffold. The high structural similarity between two peptides containing this scaffold, drosomycin and a truncated scorpion beta-toxin, has prompted us to examine and compare their biological effects. Drosom...

BACKGROUND Antivenom is still widely used in the treatment of envenomation as there are no vaccines or other effective agents available against animal venoms. Recently, neurotoxins named birtoxin family have been described from Parabuthus transvaalicus and Androctonus crassicauda. The aim of the present study was to test the anti-birtoxin antibodies for their ability to neutralize the lethal ef...