Thematic section: Natural compounds Open access

Anti-inflammatory peptides and proteins from venomous snakes: a short review

Authors

Published
28 April 2025
Section
Thematic section: Natural compounds
DOI
10.4081/jbr.2025.12996

Abstract

Inflammation can be acute or chronic. Chronic inflammation is a condition associated with several diseases like cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders, and even cancer. The venoms and poisons of several animal species, like bees and snakes, have been used in the Traditional Medicine of many regions for centuries. Although bee venom has been extensively explored and some of its components even experimentally proven to be functional as therapeutics, other animal venoms have been poorly studied in such matter. Despite venomous snakebites are potentially dangerous and fatal to humans, several anti-inflammatory molecules have been found and characterized using experimental models, both in vivo and in vitro. In this review we enlist the polypeptides of venomous snakes that have been isolated and characterized for their anti-inflammatory activity to date. These molecules include the protein Crotoxin isolated from the South American rattlesnake Crotalus durissus terrificus and the few peptides isolated from some Asian elapid snakes. The physiological mechanism of action for each molecule is briefly described. This review highlights the importance of snakes as a source of biological active substances with therapeutic potential.

Keywords

References

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