Introduction: Scorpion venoms contain a variety of peptides, toxic to mammals، insects and crustaceans and are the main factors in scorpion venom toxicity (their amount being 1-3% of total venom). Most of the scorpion toxins have been isolated from the venoms of scorpions in the Buthidae family. The scorpion Buthotus Schach of this family is widely found in the western regions of Iran, but no p...

scorpion venoms contain of variety of peptides toxic to mammals ، insects and crustaceans. toxic peptides are the main factors in scorpion venom causing toxicity, (their amount being 1-3%of total venom.). most of the scorpion toxins have been isolated from the venoms of scorpions in the family buthidae. the scorpion buthotus schach belonging to the buthidae family is widely found in the western...

Scorpion venom contains different toxins with multiple biological functions. IMe-AGAP is the first Analgesic-Antitumor like Peptide (AGAP) isolated from Iranian scorpion Mesobuthus eupeus. This peptide is similar to AGAP toxin with high analgesic activity, extracted from Chinese scorpion and inhibits NaV1.8 and NaV1.9 voltage-gated sodium channels involved in the ...

Several scorpion toxins have been shown to exert their neurotoxic effects by a direct interaction with voltage-dependent sodium channels. Both classical scorpion alpha-toxins such as Lqh II from Leiurus quiquestratus hebraeus and alpha-like toxins as toxin III from the same scorpion (Lqh III) competitively interact for binding on receptor site 3 of insect sodium channels. Conversely, Lqh III, w...

A novel inhibitor of K+ channels has been purified from the venom of the Central Asian scorpion Orthochirus scrobiculosus. For this polypeptide toxin (OsK1) with molecular mass 4205.7 Da complete amino acid sequence was determined by Edman degradation and C-terminal amino acid analysis, and was confirmed by cloning and sequencing of the toxin cDNA. OsK-1 consists of 38 amino acid residues and p...

this report describes a 55-year-old woman in whom yellow scorpion sting resulted in the development of mobitz type 1 and transient complete heart blocks unresponsive to atropine administration.  it might be concluded that although autonomic involvement including parasympathetic overactivity is present in such cases, other factors such as toxic damage to the cardiac conduction system may play a ...

Based on a homology model of the Kv1.3 potassium channel, the recognitions of the six scorpion toxins, viz. agitoxin2, charybdotoxin, kaliotoxin, margatoxin, noxiustoxin, and Pandinus toxin, to the human Kv1.3 potassium channel have been investigated by using an approach of the Brownian dynamics (BD) simulation integrating molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Reasonable three-dimensional structu...

Scorpions are amongst the most ancient arthropods, as the oldest fossils were dated from the late silurian (Proscorpius osborni, 418 million years B.P.) [1]. Extant scorpions (with about 2,000 species spreading globally) are therefore 'living fossils', which retained all of the primitive features except that they are considerably smaller compared to their up to 1-meter long Brontoscorpio anglic...

We recently reported the isolation of a scorpion toxin named U1-liotoxin-Lw1a (U1-LITX-Lw1a) that adopts an unusual 3D fold termed the disulfide-directed hairpin (DDH) motif, which is the proposed evolutionary structural precursor of the three-disulfide-containing inhibitor cystine knot (ICK) motif found widely in animals and plants. Here we reveal that U1-LITX-Lw1a targets and activates the ma...

The effects of two neurotoxins, veratridine and alpha-scorpion toxin II, on the resting potential (RMP) of identified astrocytes in primary cell culture were studied using standard electophysiological techniques. Veratridine caused either a series of transient depolarizations or a single sustained depolarization. alpha-Scorpion toxin (II), which alone had no effect on the RMP, increased the dur...