Several colubrid snakes produce venomous oral secretions. In this work, the venom collected from Venezuelan opisthoglyphous (rear-fanged) Philodryas olfersii snake was studied. Different proteins were present in its venom and they were characterized by 20% SDS-PAGE protein electrophoresis. The secretion exhibited proteolytic (gelatinase) activity, which was partially purified on a chromatograph...

Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) neuropathy is the most common hereditary cause of neuropathy. Diagnosis is usually not made during the childhood but in adolescence or late adulthood. It is reported in the literature that some neurotoxic chemotherapeutical agents can reveal an asymptomatic CMT IA hereditary neuropathy. To our knowledge, we report here the first case of CMT IA revealed in a 55-year-old...

Both control rats and rats with neurotoxic lesions of the amygdala central nucleus ate more food during presentations of a conditioned stimulus (CS) previously paired with food than during an unpaired CS. This potentiation occurred regardless of whether the food was presented in its usual place or in a different location. By contrast, rats with neurotoxic lesions of basolateral amygdala showed ...

The association between pesticide exposure and neurobehavioral and neurodevelopmental effects is an area of increasing concern. This symposium brought together participants to explore the neurotoxic effects of pesticides across the lifespan. Endpoints examined included neurobehavioral, affective and neurodevelopmental outcomes among occupational (both adolescent and adult workers) and non-occup...

The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is one of the major protein degradation pathways, where abnormal UPS function has been observed in cancer and neurological diseases. Many neurodegenerative diseases share a common pathological feature, namely intracellular ubiquitin-positive inclusions formed by aggregate-prone neurotoxic proteins. This suggests that dysfunction of the UPS in neurodegenerat...

Toluene is a neurotoxic organic solvent widely used in industry. Acute toluene administration in rats induced a significant increase in the numbers of neural cells immunostained for p75NTR in several brainstem regions, such as the raphe magnus and the nucleus of the solitary tract, as well as in the lateral reticular, gigantocellular, vestibular and ventral cochlear nuclei, without any in the f...

Cycads are an important relic from the past and represent the oldest living seed plants. Cycads have been instrumental in our understanding the evolution of angiosperms and gymnosperms because they have recognizable morphological characteristics intermediate between less-recently evolved plants such as ferns and more-derived (advanced) plants including the angiosperms. Cycads also produce sever...

Increasingly aggressive treatment protocols are being used in the hope of improving patient survival rates. These regimens, however, can lead to a wide spectrum of complications owing to the overlap between “effective” and “neurotoxic” doses of radiation. Differentiating tumor recurrence from treatmentinduced change is a clinical and radiological challenge. Researchers have suggested three mech...

Anti snake venom (ASV) is the most specific therapy available for treatment of snakebite envenomation. The ASV available in Nepal are polyvalent ASV produced in India and are effective against envenomation by cobra and krait, the two most common species found in Eastern Nepal. Neurotoxic signs respond slowly and unconvincingly and continuous absorption of venom may cause recurrent neurotoxicity...

In Cnidaria, the production of neurotoxic polypeptides is attributed to the ectodermal stinging cells (cnidocytes), which are discharged for offensive (prey capture) and/or defensive purposes. In this study, a new paralysis-inducing (neurotoxic) protein from the green hydra Chlorohydra viridissima was purified, cloned, and expressed. This paralytic protein is unique in that it (1) is derived fr...