Venom of the brown recluse spider causes a reaction-
in the body that is different from what researchers previously thought, a discovery that could lead to development of new treatments for spider bites.
University of Arizona researchers led a team that has discovered that venom of spiders in the genus Loxosceles, which contains about 100 spider species including the brown recluse, produces a different chemical product in the human body than scientists believed.
The finding has implications for understanding how these spider bites affect humans and for the development of possible treatments for the bites.
One of few common spiders whose bites can have a seriously harmful effect on humans, the brown recluse has venom that contains a rare protein that can cause a blackened lesion at the site of a bite, or a much less common, but more dangerous, systemic reaction in humans.
“This is not a protein that is usually found in the venom of poisonous animals,” said Matthew Cordes, an associate professor in the UA’s department of chemistry and biochemistry and member of the UA BIO5 Institute who led the study, published today in the journal PLOS ONE.
The protein, once injected into a bite wound, attacks phospholipid molecules that are the major component of cell membranes. The protein acts to cleave off the head portion of the lipids, leaving behind, scientists long have assumed, a simple, linear, headless lipid molecule.
The research team has discovered that in the test tube, the venom protein causes lipids to bend into a ring structure upon the loss of the head portion, generating a cyclical chemical product that is very different than the linear molecule it was assumed to produce.
spider venom-
“The very first step of this whole process that leads to skin and tissue damage or systemic effects is not what we all thought it was,” Cordes said.
The lipid knocks off its own head by making a ring within itself, prompted by the protein from the spider venom, Cordes explained. “Part of the outcome of the reaction, the release of the head group, is the same. So initially scientists believed that this was all that was happening, then that became established in the literature.”
spider venom
Spider venom: enhancement of venom: efficacy mediated by different synergistic strategies in Cupiennius saleiBesides the power of the chelicerae, synergistic interactions between different components in the venom of Cupiennius salei ensure the hunting success of this spider. The main components of the venom were tested alone or in combination according to their physiological venom concentrations in Drosophila bioassays.
The high K+ ion content of the venom synergistically: increases the insecticidal activity of the neurotoxins CSTX-1, CSTX-9 and CSTX-13 by 20% but does not influence the insecticidal effectiveness of the antimicrobially and cytolytically acting cupiennin 1a. Histamine only enhances the activity of the main neurotoxin CSTX-1. An important role in the envenomation process is exhibited by cupiennin 1a, which increases the insecticidal activity of the above-mentioned neurotoxins by up to 65%. Additionally, the highly synergistic effect of the enhancer CSTX-13 on CSTX-1, provoked in non-toxic physiological concentrations, could be verified for CSTX-9, but not for cupiennin 1a. CSTX-1 and CSTX-9 show positive interactions only when both are injected in toxic non-physiological concentrations
spider venom.
