News

As Venomtech approach our sixth birthday we are excited to report a new publication demonstrating the retinal protective effect of Brazilian wandering spider (Phoneutria nigriventor) venom. A multidisciplinary team from Brazil have publish in Toxins showing a NPQ type Calcium channel blocker they call PhTx3-4 reduces NMDA induced retial injury. This model of excitotoxicity retinopathy is though to model serveral leading causes of blindness such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, retinal vascular occlusion, optic nerve neuropathy, and retinopathy of prematurity.

Full paper here http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/8/3/70

Once more the theraphosids (Tarantulas) have delivered novel tools for targeting pain relevant ion channels. A novel NaV1.7 blocking peptide has been identified from the species Grammostolla porteri (pictured). This peptide has 1000x fold selectivity over NaV1.5 and 20x over NaV1.4. However mutational analysis and structural analysis has allowed for modification to increase the NaV1.4 selectivity to 1000x also. Thus producing an excellent tool for pain research and potential novel therapeutic. Abstract here