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Review - Vol. 23, 2017 |
Strategies in ‘snake venomics’ aiming at an integrative view of compositional, functional, and immunological characteristics of venoms
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1 Instituto Clodomiro Picado, Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José 11501, Costa Rica.
2 Structural and Functional Venomics Laboratory, Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia, CSIC, Valencia, Spain.
ABSTRACT
This work offers a general overview on the evolving strategies for the proteomic analysis of snake venoms, and discusses how these may be combined through diverse experimental approaches with the goal of achieving a more comprehensive knowledge on the compositional, toxic, and immunological characteristics of venoms. Some recent developments in this field are summarized, highlighting how strategies have evolved from the mere cataloguing of venom components (proteomics/venomics), to a broader exploration of their immunological (antivenomics) and functional (toxicovenomics) characteristics. Altogether, the combination of these complementary strategies is helping to build a wider, more integrative view of the life-threatening protein cocktails produced by venomous snakes, responsible for thousands of deaths every year.
Key words: Snake venoms; Proteomics; Venomics; Antivenomics; Toxicovenomics
Funding
Research at IBV-CSIC was supported by grant BFU2013-42833-P from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Madrid, Spain. Research at ICP-UCR was supported by Vicerrectoría de Investigación, Universidad de Costa Rica.
Received: January 24, 2017.
Revised: April 19, 2017.
Accepted: April 28, 2017.
Correspondence: bruno.lomonte@ucr.ac.cr