—Directing Venom To Fight Cancer “ACS Meeting News: Encapsulated venom peptide can skip healthy cells” Venom from scorpions or honeybees sounds like it wouldn’t do a person much good. But by directing a modified component just to tumors, researchers might leverage it into a drug. Peptides in some venoms bind to cancer cells and block tumor growth and spread.
by Stu Borman | August 18, 2014
—Mass Spec Sequences Venom Peptides “A new mass spectrometry strategy makes it easier to sequence venom peptides, a diverse set of disulfide-rich natural products that are difficult to characterize” A new mass spectrometry strategy makes it easier to sequence venom peptides, a diverse set of disulfide-rich natural products that are difficult to characterize.
by Celia Henry Arnaud | April 13, 2009
—Periodic Graphics: Ant venom and pheromones “Chemical educator and Compound Interest blogger Andy Brunning homes in on the chemicals that help the insects protect themselves and communicate.” /biological-chemistry/biochemistry/Periodic-Graphics-Ant-venom-pheromones/97/i38 20190928 Chemical educator and Compound Interest blogger Andy Brunning homes in on the chemicals that help the insects protect themselves and communicate. 97 38 /magazine/97/09738.html Periodic Graphics: Ant venom and pheromones chemical communication, biological chemistry, ants, venom, formic acid, pheromones, insects scitech Andy Brunning biological-chemistry biochemistry Periodic Graphics: Ant venom and pheromones Chemical & Engineering News Periodic Graphics: Ant venom and pheromones Periodic Graphics: Ant venom and pheromones
by Andy Brunning | September 28, 2019
But when the tawny crazy ant encounters the venom of enemy fire ants, its behavior is purely rational. Doused with the fire ant’s deadly poison, tawny crazy ants scuttle off to a quiet spot and begin grooming themselves with self-made formic acid. The formic acid turns out to be an “ant-idote” to the fire ant’s venom.
by Sarah Everts | March 03, 2014
—Spider venom peptide helps protect the brain after a stroke “Study finds the cysteine-rich peptide has a protective and restorative effect in mice hours after a stroke.” The Australian funnel-web spider’s venom can be deadly to humans. But a small amount of one peptide in the arachnid’s poison arsenal has been found to protect the brain tissue of rodents after they’ve suffered a stroke.
by Sarah Everts | March 27, 2017
—Cone snails lure prey with faux pheromones “Venom analysis also shows snails from shallow and deep waters may be separate species” Cone snails use venom when hunting their prey. While much is known about the peptides in cone snail venom, the small molecules it contains have until now not been well characterized—especially in those snails that hunt worms instead of fish.
by Celia Henry Arnaud | March 12, 2021
Researchers in Australia have used CRISPR to learn how human cells interact with this potent venom, and from this, are testing a compound as a possible antidote for this most vicious of stings. The team believes that box jellyfish venom, which has some 250 compounds in it, is a goldmine for understanding pain and tissue damage (Nat.
by Megha Satyanarayana | May 01, 2019
C&EN: LATEST NEWS - VENOM YIELDS TREASURE TROVE August 9, 2004 Volume 82, Number 32 p. 8 NATURAL PRODUCTS VENOM YIELDS TREASURE TROVE NMR spectroscopy reveals unexpected sulfated nucleosides in spider venom MICHAEL FREEMANTLE Novel sulfated nucleosides that are likely to have potent biological activity have been identified in spider venom through the use of a new analytical approach based on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The approach, developed at Cornell University, relies on the acquisition of a set of NMR spectra from the entire crude venom without prior purification. Postdoc Andrew E. Taggi, chemistry professor Jerrold Meinwald, and senior research associate Frank C. Schroeder used the approach to identify at least seven ribonucleoside mono- and disulfates derived from guanosine and xanthosine in venom secreted by the hobo spider, Tegenaria agrestis [J.
by MICHAEL FREEMANTLE | August 09, 2004
—Scorpion Venom Unfriendly To Fungi “Peptides and other compounds from stinging critter exhibit fungicidal properties” Scorpion toxins may be a new source of potential fungicides, researchers in Brazil and Venezuela report (J. Agric. Food Chem., DOI: 10.1021/jf200486t). The venom that scorpions inject into their victims contains a soup of peptides that wreak havoc on cell membranes. Scientists have noted that scorpions often spray themselves with their own venom to rid themselves of opportunistic fungal infections. But although over 500 compounds in two different scorpion species have been identified, their antifungal properties haven’t been tested. So, Gina D’Suze and Galax Joya at Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas in Caracas, Venezuela, and colleagues investigated, thinking the compounds could be useful for the agrochemical industry, since fungal infections cause 35% of crop loss worldwide.
by Elizabeth K. Wilson | May 30, 2011
—Platypus Peptides “The strange mammal’s venom could help clarify details on evolution and possibly lead to novel medicines” The duck-billed platypus has to be the strangest mammal around. Native to eastern Australia, the egg-laying creature has a signature rubbery snout, tail like a beaver’s, and feet like an otter’s, and it sports an ankle spur on its hind foot that males use to deliver a shot of venom to unsuspecting victims. An international team led by Masaki Kita of Japan’s University of Tsukuba and Daisuke Uemura of Keio University, also in Japan, are now reporting new chemical details on the cocktail of peptides that give the venom its punch (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 18038). Platypus venom is powerful enough to kill small animals, but luckily it causes only excruciating pain in humans that evolves into long-term pain sensitivity. The researchers previously reported that crude platypus venom potently increases Ca2+ concentration and disrupts the membrane in human neuroblastoma cancer cells. Guided by that finding, they used gel-permeation chromatography and mass spectrometry to purify and characterize 11 novel peptides of varying lengths in the venom.
by Stephen K. Ritter | December 21, 2009