Abstract
Cnidarians are the oldest extant lineage of venomous animals. Despite their simple anatomy, they are capable of subduing or repelling prey and predator species that are far more complex and recently evolved. Utilizing specialized penetrating nematocysts, cnidarians inject the nematocyst content or “venom” that initiates toxic and immunological reactions in the envenomated organism. These venoms contain enzymes, potent pore forming toxins, and neurotoxins. Enzymes include lipolytic and proteolytic proteins that catabolize prey tissues. Cnidarian pore forming toxins self-assemble to form robust membrane pores that can cause cell death via osmotic lysis. Neurotoxins exhibit rapid ion channel specific activities. In addition, certain cnidarian venoms contain or induce the release of host vasodilatory biogenic amines such as serotonin, histamine, bunodosine and caissarone accelerating the pathogenic effects of other venom enzymes and porins. The cnidarian attacking/defending mechanism is fast and efficient, and massive envenomation of humans may result in death, in some cases within a few minutes to an hour after sting. The complexity of venom components represents a unique therapeutic challenge and probably reflects the ancient evolutionary history of the cnidarian venom system. Thus, they are invaluable as a therapeutic target for sting treatment or as lead compounds for drug design.
Highlights
The phylum Cnidaria includes about10,000 species living in aquatic habitats worldwide [1]
Since Cnidaria is an ancient clade of animals and the complexity and diversification of their venoms serve a unique therapeutic challenge (e.g., box jellyfishes (Cubozoa) venoms), transcriptomics and proteomics data for the identification and characterizing of their venom components is rapidly accumulating in recent times [12,13,14]
Based upon mitochondrial DNA data [15] and life cycles [8,16], cnidarians are divided into two extant subphyla: Anthozoa and Medusozoa
Summary
The phylum Cnidaria (corals, sea pens, sea anemones, jellyfish and hydroids) includes about. 10,000 species living in aquatic habitats worldwide [1]. They range in size from the tiny Hydra spp, at less than 1 cm in length, to the massive lion’s mane jellyfish, Cyanea capillata with the bell diameter exceeding 2 m [2]. Morphological studies on Siphonophores (class Hydrozoa) suggest that directional asymmetry has been gained and/or lost on multiple occasions [6], whilst most anthozoan polyps exhibit bilateral symmetry possessing two orthogonal body axes [5]. Since Cnidaria is an ancient clade of animals and the complexity and diversification of their venoms serve a unique therapeutic challenge (e.g., box jellyfishes (Cubozoa) venoms), transcriptomics and proteomics data for the identification and characterizing of their venom components is rapidly accumulating in recent times [12,13,14]
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