Abstract
Venomous animals have evolved with sophisticated bio-chemical strategies to arrest prey and defend themselves from natural predators. In recent years, peptide toxins from venomous animals have drawn considerable attention from researchers due to their surprising chemical, biochemical, and pharmacological diversity. Similar to other venomous animals, centipedes are one of the crucial venomous arthropods that have been used in traditional medicine for hundreds of years in China. Despite signifying pharmacological importance, very little is known about the active components of centipede venoms. More than 500 peptide sequences have been reported in centipede venomous glands by transcriptome analysis, but only a small number of peptide toxins from centipede has been functionally described. Like other venomous animals such as snakes, scorpions, and spiders, the venom of centipedes could be an excellent source of peptides for developing drugs for treatments as well as bio-insecticides for agrochemical applications. Although centipede venoms are yet to be adequately studied, the venom of centipedes as well as their components described to date, should be compiled to help further research. Therefore, based on previous reports, this review focusses on findings and possible therapeutic applications of centipede venoms as well as their components.
Highlights
Centipedes, class Chilopoda, are one of the oldest extant terrestrial arthropods
During the past recent years, some proteins/peptides have been identified from centipedes and a few of them have been described with important pharmacological properties, which are compiled and categorized here as follows
S8 proteases were reported for the first time to be present in centipede venom, whereas S1 proteases are widely recruited proteins into animal venoms which can be found in all studied venomous taxa
Summary
Centipedes, class Chilopoda, are one of the oldest extant terrestrial arthropods. Approximately. Similar to other venoms, such as snake or scorpion, the venoms of centipedes are a natural pool of proteins, peptides and enzymes with a rich diversity of biological activities. Recent studies have indicated that venoms from a single centipede contain more than 500 proteins and peptides [11,12,13,14,15]. To help unveil further therapeutic applications, we describe known centipede venoms and their proteins/peptides with pharmacologically interesting activities. These include ion channel modulators, antimicrobial peptides, different enzymes, enzyme inhibitors, anticancer peptides, antithrombotic peptides, as well as anticoagulants and centipede extracts. During the past recent years, some proteins/peptides have been identified from centipedes and a few of them have been described with important pharmacological properties, which are compiled and categorized here as follows
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