BACKGROUND Antivenom is still widely used in the treatment of envenomation as there are no vaccines or other effective agents available against animal venoms. Recently, neurotoxins named birtoxin family have been described from Parabuthus transvaalicus and Androctonus crassicauda. The aim of the present study was to test the anti-birtoxin antibodies for their ability to neutralize the lethal ef...

We previously purified and characterized a peptide toxin, birtoxin, from the South African scorpion Parabuthus transvaalicus. Birtoxin is a 58-residue, long chain neurotoxin that has a unique three disulfide-bridged structure. Here we report the isolation and characterization of ikitoxin, a peptide toxin with a single residue difference, and a markedly reduced biological activity, from birtoxin...

background : antivenom is still widely used in the treatment of envenomation as there are no vaccines or other effective agents available against animal venoms. recently, neurotoxins named birtoxin family have been described from parabuthus transvaalicus and androctonus crassicauda. the aim of the present study was to test the antibirtoxin antibodies for their ability to neutralize the lethal e...

The venom of the South African scorpion Parabuthus transvaalicus was characterized using a combination of mass spectrometry and RP-HPLC separation and bioassays. The crude venom was initially separated into 10 fractions. A novel, moderately toxic but very high abundance peptide (birtoxin) of 58 amino-acid residues was isolated, identified and characterized. Each purification step was followed b...

BACKGROUND K+ and Na+ channel toxins constitute a large set of polypeptides, which interact with their ion channel targets. These polypeptides are classified in two different structural groups. Recently a new structural group called birtoxin-like appeared to contain both types of toxins has been described. We hypothesized that peptides of this group may contain two conserved structural motifs i...

Scorpion venom is composed among other things of a large number of neurotoxic peptides affecting all major types of ion channels. The majority of the toxicity of the venom is attributed to the presence of these peptides. In our previous studies using a combination of HPLC and mass spectrometry, we showed that birtoxin like peptides are the major peptidic components of the venom of Parabuthus tr...

background: mycobacterium tuberculosis is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. infection with this bacterium is known to induce the development of autoantibodies of which a few are also known to be diagnostic markers for some other diseases. antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (anca's) are among those autoantibodies used in clinical setting for diagnosing systemic vasculit...

patients with malignancy are at higher risk of thrombotic complications due to the hypercoagulability state. our objective in this study was to assess the serum concentrations of homocysteine, anti phospholipid antibodies, and anti cardiolipin in patients with benign and malignant breast tumors and study the effect of chemotherapy on the serum levels of these markers. a case control study was c...

recurrent abortion is a critical problem in which many factors play a crucial role such as anticordiolipin antibody and antiphospholipid antibody. this study was conducted to evaluate the frequency of anticardiolipin antibody and antiphospholipid antibody in pregnancy failures in women with the history of recurrent pregnancy loss. in 154 women with the history of two or more recurrent pregnancy...

background: celiac disease is one of the malabsorption syndromes leads to growth and development retardation in children. there is no test lonely can definitely diagnose celiac; however, the collection of clinical findings, serologic tests, intestinal biopsy, and response to treatment may diagnose it. although diagnostic value is variable in different studies, they are used a non-invasive and a...