Venomous bites by nonvenomous snakes: an annotated bibliography of colubrid envenomation

Minton, Sherman A.

doi:10.1580/0953-9859-1.2.119

Cited by 67 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Among the events that stimulated his interest in this topic were several cases of apparent envenomation by garter snakes (Thamnophis elegans terrestris: [25,26] , Minton identified the snakes involved in these reports; T. e. vagrans: [27,28] , T. sirtalis sirtalis: [29] ; T. couchi: [6] , but see Ref. [24] ). These cases were of great interest because all snakes of the genus Thamnophis had been thought to be harmless to humans by the medical and herpetological communities as well as by the North American public.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colubrid Envenomations in the United States

Chiszar

Smith

2002

Journal of Toxicology: Toxin Reviews

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The literature concerned with colubrid envenomations in the United States is reviewed, including cases involving Americans who were envenomated by exotic snakes. Because exotic snakes have become readily available through the pet trade, it is essential for medical personnel to realize that snake-bite victims presenting themselves at North American hospitals may have been bitten by South American, Asian, African or European animals. Major themes emerging from this review are: 1) some colubrid envenomations have been serious, even life threatening, 2) many so-called envenomations might actually be allergic reactions, 3) extreme variability seems to characterize Duvernoy's secretions, intraspecifically as well as interspecifically, 4) even within the same individual, Duvernoy's secretion can vary in composition and action from time to time, and 5) we know little about the determinants of this variability, although a variety of hypotheses are available. Opportunities for research in this area are extensive. Likewise, we know little about the historical or current biological role(s) of Duvernoy's secretions, and once again there exists a plethora of hypotheses, only a few of which have been tested. We appear to be standing at the threshold of a new era of exciting empirical and theoretical discoveries, some of which may redefine the way we think about colubrid oral secretions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colubrid Envenomations in the United States

Chiszar

Smith

2002

Journal of Toxicology: Toxin Reviews

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“…We found that 56.4% of published ten-cysteine 3FTx come from the genus Boiga. This is likely due in large part to publication bias: Boiga have long been recognized as venomous, and B. irregularis is one of the most notorious invasive species in the world [42,117]. The other well-studied nonfront-fanged snake venom is that of Dispholidus typus, the dangerously toxic boomslang, which is primarily composed of P-III snake venom metalloproteinases and so contributes relatively few sequences to our data [21,118].…”

Section: Phylogenetics and Protein Similarity Networkmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Meanwhile, species of vipers hold the records for highest latitude (above the arctic circle) [36] and highest altitude (almost 5,000 m) [37] inhabited by snakes. Highly venomous species are able to eke out a living in other inhospitable environments including harsh deserts [38] and isolated islands with very scarce access to food and water [39][40][41] Snakes lacking prominent fangs were thought, until recently, to be non-venomous as-with a few notable exceptions-they posed little medical threat to humans [6,[42][43][44]. A combination of factors, 3 including the recognition that many of these non-front-fanged snakes possess enlarged, grooved, teeth in the back part of the mouth [27,45,46], studies showing the homology between the venom glands of colubroid snakes [18,47], adoption of a more inclusive definition of venom among the research community [17,19,28,[48][49][50], and actual extraction and analysis of secretions from the oral glands of these snakes [43,44,51,52] has led to the realization that many non-front-fanged snakes should be considered venomous.…”

Section: Snake Venomsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novelty in three-finger toxin evolution

Dashevsky¹

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Snakes are a striking taxon on many levels and have an indelible place in the collective culture of humanity. This is due to a number of unusual features including their limblessness, ability to ingest large prey, but most importantly their venom. From a biological perspective, snakes are equally fascinating, showing how a simple body plan can be used to great effect in an extremely broad variety of niches. Snakes are globally distributed and ecologically diverse; as a result, since recent research has shown that most snakes are venomous to some degree, their venom is equally diverse. This thesis focuses on one major toxin family: three-finger toxins (3FTx). These toxins can be found in virtually all venomous snake lineages and are often neurotoxic. Since their original recruitment there have been numerous instances of structural and functional innovation within this toxin family. The research in this thesis pertains to several such novel adaptations in snakes of the colubrid and elapid families, many of whose venom is composed primarily of these toxins. Chapter 2 deals with the ancestral version 3FTx and how, in the colubrine genus Boiga, simple mutations in toxins can lead to structural changes, in this case additional cysteines enable the formation of dimeric toxins with increased potency. These novel toxins can, in turn, open up new niches to the snakes which possess those toxins. In B. irregularis they facilitated a destructive invasion event and may have similarly assisted in the spread of an ancestral Boiga since our research shows that several other species possess similar dimeric toxins. This echoes a process that occurred in the ancestor of the elapids where the loss of a pair of cysteines and their disulfide bond was followed by an incredible diversification of these toxins and the snakes that produce them. Chapter 3 explores venom composition and activity of the genus Calliophis, the most basal genus of the elapids. C. bivirgatus and C. intestinalis both possess extremely elongated venom glands and each produce 3FTx with novel sodium channel toxicity. However, the two venoms produce opposite effects from one another. These results suggests some intriguing possibilities about the evolutionary history of these novel traits in Calliophis and the general composition of their venoms inform our understanding of how the venoms of more derived elapids evolved.Chapters 4 and 5 focus on the genus Micrurus. This genus from the Americas is by far the most speciose genus of elapids and belongs to the coral snake clade which is the next branch in the phylogeny of the elapids after Calliophis. The venoms of these snakes all contain a high number of unique 3FTx, though some venoms may be dominated by PLA2 toxins in terms of overall composition. Chapter 4 focuses on the sequence diversity of 3FTx from this genus and the selection regimes under which they operate. This diversity may lay the groundwork for rapid changes in the toxin composition of the venom and accompanying changes in venom activity. Chapter 5 directly ...

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“…Estudos com venenos de serpentes têm possibilitado a elucidação de diversos processos bioquímicos e fisiológicos manifestados durante o envenenamento, bem como contribuído sobremaneira na modelagem molecular de novos princípios ativos de drogas para os mais variados fins (MÉNEZ, 1998;GUTIÉRREZ, 2002 (TAUB, 1966;GANS, 1978;UNDERWOOD, 1997;MINTON, 1985MINTON, ,1990. Os fatores de que a grande maioria das espécies produz pouca quantidade de veneno e a ineficácia dos métodos de extração sustentam as dificuldades de pesquisa nesta área..…”

Section: Venenos De Serpentes: Uma Visão Geralunclassified

“…No quadro clínico dos envenenamentos humanos causados por Colubrídeos, destacam-se a hemorragia local, desenvolvimento do processo inflamatório e/ou necrose, podendo apresentar ou não sintomas de ordem sistêmica (KUCH & MEBS, 2002;PUORTO & FRANÇA, 2003 (MACKINSTRY, 1983;MINTON, 1990;DATTA & TU, 1993;SAWAI et al, 2002 (MATHER et al, 1978;FERLAN et al, 1983). Sintomas semelhantes foram causados por Rhabdophis tigrinus, incluindo hemorragia superficial, sérios distúrbios na coagulação, hemólise e alterações do sistema nervoso central e autônomo (MITTLEMAN & GORIS, 1974;SAWAI et al, 2002 As serinoproteases são enzimas da família das quimiotripsinas envolvidas nos mecanismos da digestão e processos de degradação protéica, coagulação sangüínea e fibrinólise, e ativação do sistema complemento na resposta imune (LESK & FORDHAM, 1996).…”

Section: Acidentes Por Colubrídeos E Epidemiologiaunclassified

Alterações locais induzidas pela secreção tóxicas de Philodryas patagoniensis (Girard, 1857) (Serpentes: Colubridae)

Lopes¹

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Venomous bites by nonvenomous snakes: an annotated bibliography of colubrid envenomation

Cited by 67 publications

References 25 publications

Colubrid Envenomations in the United States

Colubrid Envenomations in the United States

Novelty in three-finger toxin evolution

Alterações locais induzidas pela secreção tóxicas de Philodryas patagoniensis (Girard, 1857) (Serpentes: Colubridae)

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