Venoms of Iranian Scorpions (Arachnida, Scorpiones) and Their Potential for Drug Discovery

Abstract

Scorpions, a characteristic group of arthropods, are among the earliest diverging arachnids, dating back almost 440 million years. One of the many interesting aspects of scorpions is that they have venom arsenals for capturing prey and defending against predators, which may play a critical role in their evolutionary success. Unfortunately, however, scorpion envenomation represents a serious health problem in several countries, including Iran. Iran is acknowledged as an area with a high richness of scorpion species and families. The diversity of the scorpion fauna in Iran is the subject of this review, in which we report a total of 78 species and subspecies in 19 genera and four families. We also list some of the toxins or genes studied from five species, including Androctonus crassicauda, Hottentotta zagrosensis, Mesobuthus phillipsi, Odontobuthus doriae, and Hemiscorpius lepturus, in the Buthidae and Hemiscorpiidae families. Lastly, we review the diverse functions of typical toxins from the Iranian scorpion species, including their medical applications.

A Comprehensive Phylogenetic Analysis of the Serpin Superfamily

“…There is also evidence to suggest that serpins from Group Q form a component of venom in some free-living arachnids (scorpions, spiders) ( Gremski et al. 2010 ; Kazemi and Sabatier 2019 ), although the protease specificity and precise regulatory function of these proteins remains unknown.…”

Cytotoxic Effects of Smp24 and Smp43 Scorpion Venom Antimicrobial Peptides on Tumour and Non-tumour Cell Lines

“…Scorpion venoms are cocktails of diverse biologically active compounds (see, inter alia, Rodriguez de la Vega and Possani, 2005;Rodriguez de la Vega et al 2010;Cao et al 2014;Abdel-Rahman et al 2015;Cid-Uribe et al 2018;Kazemi and Sabatier, 2019) and provide a rich source of AMPs (for reviews see Harrison et al 2014;Wang and Wang, 2016;El-Bitar et al 2019). Abdel-Rahman et al (2013) identified two novel amphipathic cationic AMPs (Smp43 and Smp24) through cDNA sequencing of the venom gland of the Egyptian scorpion Scorpio maurus palmatus.…”

A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the serpin superfamily

“…It is curious that the majority of taxa that belong to Group Q are chordate parasites (ticks and mites) that have evolved serpins to inhibit host proteases in order to evade adaptive immune responses (Xu et al 2019;Prevot et al 2009;Chmelar et al 2011) or prolong feeding by disrupting hemostatic proteolytic cascades (Mulenga et al 2013;Chmelar et al 2011). There is also evidence to suggest that serpins from Group Q form a component of venom in some free-living arachnids (scorpions, spiders) (Kazemi and Sabatier 2019;Gremski et al 2010), although the precise function of these proteins remains unknown.…”