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Neurotoxic Effects of Animal Venoms: Molecular Mechanisms and Prevention
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Neurotoxic Effects of Animal Venoms: Molecular Mechanisms and Prevention

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Toxicology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 16573

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Yuri Utkin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Molecular Toxinology, Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117997 Moscow, Russia
Interests: nicotinic acetylcholine receptor; venoms; snake; scorpion; animal toxins
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the process of evolution, some animals have developed the ability to produce venoms for defense and hunting. In hunting, the main task of the venom is to efficiently immobilize prey. The easiest way to do this is by disrupting the function of the nervous system. Therefore, the nervous system is one of the main targets for venoms. Animal venoms contain components that affect various stages of nerve impulse transduction, including the release of the neurotransmitter, its interaction with the receptor, signal transmission in the nerve fiber, and other stages. Some mechanisms of neurotoxic action are well described, such as the interaction of snake postsynaptic neurotoxins with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. However, even in this case, not all the details of the interaction have been elucidated. Other mechanisms are not as clear and require more detailed study, such as the effect of presynaptic neurotoxins on the release of a neurotransmitter. Currently, the standard treatment for animal envenoming is antivenom therapy. However, a huge number of neurotoxins are small proteins (e.g., snake alpha-neurotoxins) or peptides (e.g., alpha-conotoxins), which creates problems in obtaining anti-serum. In this Special Issue, we plan to consider the structures of new neurotoxins and their biological targets, the mechanisms of interaction of neurotoxins with targets, possible ways to prevent the neurotoxic effects of animal venoms, and the molecular mechanisms of such anti-neurotoxic effects. Original articles, reviews, comments, etc. on various aspects of the neurotoxic effects of animal venoms are invited.

Dr. Yuri Utkin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • animal venoms
  • neurotoxins
  • structure
  • biological targets
  • molecular mechanisms
  • anti-serum

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 9332 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Binding of Venoms from Aquatic Elapids to the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Orthosteric Site of Different Prey Models
by Richard J. Harris, Nicholas J. Youngman, Christina N. Zdenek, Tam M. Huynh, Amanda Nouwens, Wayne C. Hodgson, David Harrich, Nathan Dunstan, José A. Portes-Junior and Bryan G. Fry
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21(19), 7377; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21197377 - 6 Oct 2020
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2344
Abstract
The evolution of an aquatic lifestyle from land dwelling venomous elapids is a radical ecological modification, bringing about many evolutionary changes from morphology to diet. Diet is an important ecological facet which can play a key role in regulating functional traits such as [...] Read more.
The evolution of an aquatic lifestyle from land dwelling venomous elapids is a radical ecological modification, bringing about many evolutionary changes from morphology to diet. Diet is an important ecological facet which can play a key role in regulating functional traits such as venom composition and prey-specific targeting of venom. In addition to predating upon novel prey (e.g., fish, fish eggs and invertebrates), the venoms of aquatic elapids also face the challenge of increased prey-escape potential in the aquatic environment. Thus, despite the independent radiation into an aquatic niche on four separate occasions, the venoms of aquatic elapids are evolving under convergent selection pressures. Utilising a biolayer interferometry binding assay, this study set out to elucidate whether crude venoms from representative aquatic elapids were target-specific to the orthosteric site of postsynaptic nicotinic acetylcholine receptor mimotopes of fish compared to other terrestrial prey types. Representatives of the four aquatic lineages were: aquatic coral snakes representative was Micrurus surinamensis;, sea kraits representative was Laticauda colubrina; sea snakes representatives were two Aipysurus spp. and eight Hydrophis spp; and water cobras representative was Naja annulata. No prey-specific differences in crude venom binding were observed from any species tested, except for Aipysurus laevis, which showed slight evidence of prey-potency differences. For Hydrophis caerulescens, H. peronii, H. schistosus and M. surinamensis, there was a lack of binding to the orthosteric site of any target lineage. Subsequent testing on the in vitro chick-biventer cervicis muscle preparation suggested that, while the venoms of these species bound postsynaptically, they bound to allosteric sites rather than orthosteric. Allosteric binding is potentially a weaker but faster-acting form of neurotoxicity and we hypothesise that the switch to allosteric binding is likely due to selection pressures related to prey-escape potential. This research has potentially opened up the possibility of a new functional class of toxins which have never been assessed previously while shedding light on the selection pressures shaping venom evolution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurotoxic Effects of Animal Venoms: Molecular Mechanisms and Prevention)
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Review

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24 pages, 1481 KiB  
Review
What Are the Neurotoxins in Hemotoxic Snake Venoms?
by Alexey Osipov and Yuri Utkin
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(3), 2919; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24032919 - 2 Feb 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 6558
Abstract
Snake venoms as tools for hunting are primarily aimed at the most vital systems of the prey, especially the nervous and circulatory systems. In general, snakes of the Elapidae family produce neurotoxic venoms comprising of toxins targeting the nervous system, while snakes of [...] Read more.
Snake venoms as tools for hunting are primarily aimed at the most vital systems of the prey, especially the nervous and circulatory systems. In general, snakes of the Elapidae family produce neurotoxic venoms comprising of toxins targeting the nervous system, while snakes of the Viperidae family and most rear-fanged snakes produce hemotoxic venoms directed mainly on blood coagulation. However, it is not all so clear. Some bites by viperids results in neurotoxic signs and it is now known that hemotoxic venoms do contain neurotoxic components. For example, viperid phospholipases A2 may manifest pre- or/and postsynaptic activity and be involved in pain and analgesia. There are other neurotoxins belonging to diverse families ranging from large multi-subunit proteins (e.g., C-type lectin-like proteins) to short peptide neurotoxins (e.g., waglerins and azemiopsin), which are found in hemotoxic venoms. Other neurotoxins from hemotoxic venoms include baptides, crotamine, cysteine-rich secretory proteins, Kunitz-type protease inhibitors, sarafotoxins and three-finger toxins. Some of these toxins exhibit postsynaptic activity, while others affect the functioning of voltage-dependent ion channels. This review represents the first attempt to systematize data on the neurotoxins from “non-neurotoxic” snake venom. The structural and functional characteristic of these neurotoxins affecting diverse targets in the nervous system are considered. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurotoxic Effects of Animal Venoms: Molecular Mechanisms and Prevention)
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14 pages, 1506 KiB  
Review
Review of the Mechanisms of Snake Venom Induced Pain: It’s All about Location, Location, Location
by Vance G. Nielsen and Michael T. Wagner
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(4), 2128; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23042128 - 15 Feb 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 6566
Abstract
Pain—acute, chronic and debilitating—is the most feared neurotoxicity resulting from a survivable venomous snake bite. The purpose of this review is to present in a novel paradigm what we know about the molecular mechanisms responsible for pain after envenomation. Progressing from known pain [...] Read more.
Pain—acute, chronic and debilitating—is the most feared neurotoxicity resulting from a survivable venomous snake bite. The purpose of this review is to present in a novel paradigm what we know about the molecular mechanisms responsible for pain after envenomation. Progressing from known pain modulating peptides and enzymes, to tissue level interactions with venom resulting in pain, to organ system level pain syndromes, to geographical level distribution of pain syndromes, the present work demonstrates that understanding the mechanisms responsible for pain is dependent on “location, location, location”. It is our hope that this work can serve to inspire the molecular and epidemiologic investigations needed to better understand the neurotoxic mechanisms responsible for these snake venom mediated diverse pain syndromes and ultimately lead to agent specific treatments beyond anti-venom alone. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Neurotoxic Effects of Animal Venoms: Molecular Mechanisms and Prevention)
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