—Medical Hydrogel Relies On Nanotech And A Hint Of Snake Venom “Biomaterials: Self-assembled nanofibers loaded with a pit viper toxin can stem surgical blood loss” Peptide hydrogels have teamed up with a snake venom toxin to create a material that could help surgeons stem blood loss in the operating room, even if patients are taking blood thinners (ACS Biomater.
by Matt Davenport | November 02, 2015
—Cone Snails Jolt Fish Into Insulin Shock “Specialized form of insulin in cone snail venom lowers blood sugar of fish, making them easy targets” Some cone snails slogging through the ocean have an unexpected compound in their arsenal of chemical weapons—an unusual version of the peptide hormone insulin.
by Celia Henry Arnaud | January 26, 2015
—Small Molecule Found In Cone Snail Arsenal “Natural Products: Although known for their paralyzing polypeptides, cone snails also use a guanine derivative to disable their prey” Just before engulfing a tasty meal of a fish or a marine worm, a cone snail paralyzes its prey by injecting it with venom from a harpoonlike tooth. Scientists previously identified the paralyzing compounds in cone snail venom as polypeptides. Some of them have even been developed into pain medication for people, such as the synthetic injectable drug ziconotide (Prialt). Researchers led by University of Utah biologist Baldomero M. Olivera and chemist Eric W. Schmidt now report that polypeptides aren’t the only paralyzing compounds in cone snail venom. They identified a small molecule in two different cone snail species—Conus genuanus and Conus geographus—that causes paralysis in mice when given at nanomolar doses (Org. Lett. 2015, DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.5b02389).
by Bethany Halford | October 12, 2015
—Wasp Venom Peptide Selectively Punctures Cancer Cell Membranes “Drug Discovery: Peptide may target phospholipids when attacking tumor cells” Though few people would welcome a sting from the Brazilian wasp Polybia paulista, the wasp’s venom does contain a potentially useful molecule. The venom peptide MP1 selectively kills human cancer cells by creating pores in their membranes.
by Judith Lavelle | September 07, 2015
In this work, the team screened IONTAS’s library of about 40 billion human antibodies against a partially-purified venom containing dendrotoxin proteins, which along with so-called short and long neurotoxins give the black mamba its lethal bite. The venom binding screen flagged 90 antibodies and the researchers sequenced the DNA of each. Then, from about a quarter of those antibodies, they devised cocktails for injecting straight into mice’s brains, along with the poisonous venom. A cocktail containing three human immunoglobulin G antibodies spared the mice from venom-induced death. The authors note, however, that the result is specific to their brain-injection model, where dendrotoxins are the main toxic component, as opposed to an intravenous injection model, in which other neurotoxins would dominate.
by Tien Nguyen | October 03, 2018
—Decay as a defense against sharks and venom evolution in Australian snakes “” Scaring sharks with chemistry By day, Eric Stroud was a research chemist for Pfizer and, later, a pharmaceutical industry consultant. But at night, he would hunker down in his New Jersey basement around children’s plastic swimming pools filled with small sharks, pursuing his real passion: chemical shark repellents.
by Andrea Widener | September 25, 2017
And they’re the only venomous primate. Lorises don’t have venom sacs near their mouths—their venom is activated by combining oils from their brachial arm gland with saliva. Yes, they brush their mouth along their oil-secreting arms to concoct an often deadly recipe. Their bites have been known to cause anaphylactic shock and death in humans. Anna Nekaris, a primate conservation professor at Oxford Brookes University, in England, and her team have investigated for two years how these understudied primates became so venomous (J. Venomous Anim. Toxins Incl. Trop. Dis. 2013, DOI: 10.1186/1678-9199-19-21). “The venom appears to have multiple functions.
by Sophia L. Cai | October 21, 2013
—Neurotoxic snail venom helps researchers better understand the immune system “Team finds that conotoxins known to disrupt the central nervous system can also bind to immune receptors” Slow-moving, seafaring cone snails paralyze their unsuspecting prey using a harpoon-like tooth to deliver a suite of neurotoxic peptides.
by Emma Hiolski | October 23, 2017
—Individual Insects Make Signature Venoms “Walking stick study hints at chemical biodiversity in these insects” It's safe to say that not many people have milked the insects known as walking sticks for the defensive secretions the insects spray when threatened. Now, milkers in Gainesville, Fla., have used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to discover that the secretions of individual walking sticks are chemically distinct. "Single-insect variability of venom demonstrates the potential variability of chemical biodiversity at the level of individual animals," the researchers say. Walking sticks would never have perambulated into Arthur S. Edison's laboratory at the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute were it not for graduate student Aaron T.
by Ivan Amato | September 19, 2006