Abstract
The genus <i>Conus</i> is equipped with a unique venomous mixture of conopeptides which secreted for predation and defense purposes. This work is aiming to explore and determine the effect of the crude venom of <i>Conus flavidus</i>, a worm-hunting cone snail inhabiting the Red Sea, on the oxidant/ antioxidant system in mice using some oxidative stress biomarker assays. In addition to assess its histopathological effects on some treated organs. The LC<sub>50</sub> were detected for the crude venom using the hemolytic assay (16.7 mg/ml) and male albino mice were injected intraperitoneally with ½ LC<sub>50</sub> (8.3 mg/kg B.Wt). Biochemically, after 2, 4, 6, 12, 24 hours of injection the results revealed significant inhibition of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities in blood and liver in almost all time intervals comparing with control one. However, it showed elevation in lipid peroxide content (LPC), protein carbonyl content (PCC), nitric oxide level (NO) reduced glutathione content (GSH) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) contents of both blood and liver in almost all time intervals. Histopathologicaly, liver and heart were dissected after 1, 3 and 7 days of injection. The treated liver showed vacuolar degeneration, karyolosis and pyknosis, mild blood sinusoidal congestion and centrilobular necrosis. The treated heart illustrated degenerated myofibrils, pyknosis, edema, blood vessel congestion, loss of striation normal construction and fascicular pattern in the myocardium. These results revealed that <i>C. flavidus</i> crude venom has distinct effects upon the oxidant/antioxidant cellular system and degenerative pathological effects in some tissues of treated animals, proving that this venom may contain bioactive peptides, which could be purified and used for further pharmacological and drug discovery investigations in the future.
Highlights
Marine cone snails from the genus Conus are estimated to contain up to 800 species [1], each has evolved an apparatus that synthesize, store and eject a unique set of venomous cocktail contains molecular-diversified components, could reach 100 components in a single crude venom, almost all of them are short peptides (10-40 amino acids) known generally as conopeptides [2,3,4,5,6]
In order to investigate the toxicity of crude venom of C. flavidus, in vitro hemolysis was evaluated by incubating an erythrocytes suspension of freshly-drawn human blood along with different concentrations of pooled venom, compared with the hemolysis of saline and triton X-100, and the hemolytic activity was determined as hemolysis percentage
(-A C) and table 1, all treated animal groups were intraperitoneally injected with 1⁄2 LC50 (8.3 mg/ kg) of Conus flavidus venom in order to evaluate its effects on lipid peroxide content (LPC), protein carbonyl content (PCC) and Nitric oxide (NO), respectively
Summary
Marine cone snails from the genus Conus are estimated to contain up to 800 species [1], each has evolved an apparatus that synthesize, store and eject a unique set of venomous cocktail contains molecular-diversified components, could reach 100 components in a single crude venom, almost all of them are short peptides (10-40 amino acids) known generally as conopeptides [2,3,4,5,6]. Conus species use their venoms in predation and in defense and competition purposes. This is achieved through evolving strategies, including peptide folding and post-translational modifications, to produce powerful peptides that efficiently and rapidly a wide range of ion channels and signal transduction pathways of the envenomed prey nervous systems, causing immediate immobilization [8,9].
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