![]() When separation and isolation of each compound is not achievable owing to the low quantity of raw venom, these procedures can yield amounts of proteins suitable for subsequent activity testing, although they require extensive optimization for each component.Īctivity screening mostly relies on electrophysiology that is applied on multiple neuroreceptors, ligand-gated and voltage-gated ion channels involved in neurodegenerative and drug dependency disorders, in immune system regulation, anesthesia, and neuropathic pain. Afterwards, the peptide and protein toxins are synthesized via solid-phase peptide synthesis and regioselective folding, or by a variety of different recombinant expression systems to obtain a realistic folding pattern. ![]() Integration of genomic data is still uncommon, despite its promise for elucidating evolutionary and regulatory patterns of venom compounds.īioinformatics pipelines are used for similarity-based screening and identification of promising candidates. This proteo-transcriptomics approach allows the detection of low-copy transcripts and post-translational modifications, and a precise relative quantification of expressed proteins. Transcriptomic data obtained by the latest RNA-sequencing technologies are often integrated with bottom-up proteomics, in which high-performance liquid chromatography is coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. High-throughput techniques have facilitated the characterization of complex venoms even in non-model organisms. The cross subjects in which the scientific, technological, and socio-economic impact of EUVEN will be realized are outlined in the bottom dark grey bar. This integrative scheme is the heart of EUVEN, in which 5 major Working Groups focus on these topics and methods (top dark grey bar see text for details). The whole system is affected and interacts with outer drivers (purple). These major topics are loosely associated with broader themes given in the light grey circle. ![]() In the surrounding white circle, main aspects of current venom research are indicated and summarized by the major topics in the dark grey ovals. The centre is composed of modern morphology and -omics methods, in particular proteomics, transcriptomics, and genomics. The multidisciplinary, integrative, and interconnected vision of venom research proposed in EUVEN. These fast-evolving technologies foster venomics research but also bring new challenges, necessitating considerable integrative expertise. Venom investigation involves many scientific disciplines that in recent years have undergone great technological improvements (Fig. Venomics as a multidisciplinary playground Besides medicine, venom toxins have great potential in other biotechnological fields: spider toxins to develop eco-friendly insecticides and other agrochemicals, ion channel blockers from cone snails and bees for cosmeceutical applications, and pore-forming toxins for sequencing and sensing technologies. To date, 10 animal-derived drugs have been approved and several others are in various stages of clinical trials to treat a wide array of diseases including cancer, hypertension, acute coronary syndromes, and chronic pain. These characteristics make them ideal candidates for biotechnological applications. Many toxins target the neuromuscular system, while others possess anticoagulant, cytolytic, anesthetic, and hypotensive activities. In addition, toxins are streamlined to act fast at very low concentrations, being highly specific with key physiological targets of prey and/or predators (ion channels, enzymes, and cellular membrane components). Venom toxins are adaptive and highly convergent traits, extremely useful to understand the evolutionary mechanisms that link genotype, phenotype, and protein function. Venoms are complex mixtures of bioactive compounds, mostly peptides and proteins, that evolved through millions of years of natural selection predominantly for predation and defense. Venomous species represent ∼15% of the global estimated animal biodiversity, are omnipresent in aquatic and terrestrial habitats, and evolved independently in all metazoan lineages in >100 instances.
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