The noradrenergic innervation of Bothrops jararaca venom gland is thought to be important in the production and secretion of venom. We investigated the characteristics of the alpha-adrenoceptor in the venom gland and its role in venom production. This receptor had relatively low sensitivity to noradrenaline (pD(2)=4.77+/-0.09, N=7) and to phenylephrine (pD(2)=3.77+/-0.06, N=11). The receptor be...

wet zone of Sri Lanka. The second patient was bitten by Tetraponera rufonigra ('Hathpolaya') belonging to the subfamily of Pseudomyrmecinae. Ant venom consists of proteins, enzymes, formic acid and other chemicals. Venom differs from species to species. Skin test using ant extract, specific IgE assays and immunotherapy with whole body extract of the ant are available in some countries. Venom ex...

OBJECTIVES Toad venom, called Chan-Su, is a traditional Oriental medicine secreted from the auricular and the skin glands of the Bufo bufo gargarizanz Cantor or B. melanosticus Schneider and has been widely used in China, Korea and other parts of Asia for the treatment of pain, heart conditions, and cancer. We examined the concentrations of the main chemical constituents within a commerciallyav...

The venom of animals, including snakes, scorpions, and spiders is a complex combination of proteins, peptides, and other biomolecules as well as some minerals. Among the biomolecules of some animal’s venom, small peptides that lack disulfide bands known as Non-Disulfide Bridge Peptides (NDBPs) potentiate the bradykinin by preventing the conversion of angiotensin 1 to angiotensin 2 using the mec...

Despite numerous studies concerning morphology and venom production and secretion in the main venom gland (and some data on the accessory gland) of the venom glandular apparatus of Viperidae snakes, the primary duct has been overlooked. We characterized the primary duct of the Bothrops jararaca snake by morphological analysis, immunohistochemistry and proteomics. The duct has a pseudostratified...

Centipede venoms have emerged as a rich source of novel bioactive compounds. However, most centipede species are commonly considered too small for venom extraction and transcriptomics is likely to be an attractive way of probing the molecular diversity of these venoms. Examining the venom composition of Scolopendra subspinipes, we test the accuracy of this approach. We compared the proteomicall...

egg-laying hens were immunized with the echis carinatus venom and the resulting antibodies were extracted from egg yolk by four different purification methods. the chicken egg yolk antibodies were purified by the water dilution method, polyethylene glycol (peg) and ammonium sulphate precipitation method, chloroform extraction and the lithium sulphate precipitation method. these methods were com...

RNA synthesis in the venom glands of Crotalus durissus terrificus was stimulated by the manual extraction of the venom (milking). RNA was extracted from venom glands activated by milking and fractionated by centrifugation through sucrose density gradients. Template activity for protein synthesis and base composition of the RNA fractions were studied. RNA fractions that sediment between 18S and ...

Egg-laying hens were immunized with the Echis carinatus venom and the resulting antibodies were extracted from egg yolk by four different purification methods. The chicken egg yolk antibodies were purified by the water dilution method, polyethylene glycol (PEG) and ammonium sulphate precipitation method, chloroform extraction and the Lithium sulphate precipitation method. These methods were com...