ISSN: 2161-0495
+44 1478 350008
Department of Land Administration, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
Review Article
Pharmacological Activities of Clinically Relevant Venoms and Specific Venom-Derived Drugs Approved for use in Medicine
Author(s): Ojogbane Abutu*
Venoms are generally aqueous solutions with cocktail of complex mixture of components mainly proteins and
peptide toxins with pathophysiological functions. Venomous animals produced toxins in a bid to live favorably in a
particular environment or in order to win among animals. As a consequence, animal envenoming’s, notably
following bite or sting by snake, scorpion and spider precipitate life-threatening pathological conditions. Evidence
suggests that evolutional events endowed each venom toxin with unique, thereby enabling the bioactive compound to
act on molecular targets with high affinity, potency, specificity and selectivity. The aforementioned properties of
venom toxins, which are often not found in natural or synthetic small molecules, make them valuable resource for
development of pharmacological interventions. This review provides an overview of med.. View More»