Why do centipedes hurt people? They are the ghosts of peptide molecules.

"Long body has two feet, black and black is a nest.It's hard to bear pain when it's toxic.It is a good medicine for treating diseases."

Let's guess what the answer to this riddle is.I believe many people guessed it.Yes, it is this small and deadly creature - centipedes.Gotop Biology Editor wants to talk about centipedes today.

As we all know, centipede is a kind of terrestrial arthropod. Its body is composed of many segments, each with feet, so it is also called "centipede".Centipedes are a highly toxic organism, albeit of small size, with a maximum length of less than 20 cm.Centipedes contain venom glands and can secrete a kind of venom. The main component of venom is protein, which can poison large organisms.For example, a 3-gram Golden-headed centipede can kill a 45-gram rat in 30 seconds, indicating that centipede venom is highly toxic.When the human body is bitten by centipedes, symptoms such as headache, vomiting, fever, arrhythmia, syncope, myocardial failure often occur, and even death occurs in severe cases.

According to statistics, there are several incidents of centipede wounding in China every year.Although most of them only show some symptoms and death is rare, the harm of centipedes to human body can not be underestimated.A few days ago, Chinese scientists published a paper in the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences, saying they had unraveled the secret of centipede venom poisoning large prey.This finding will be helpful for clinical treatment of severe symptoms such as myocardial failure caused by centipede bite poisoning.

In this study, researchers discovered the peptide toxin SsTx by tracking highly lethal molecules in centipede venom, which can selectively block KCNQ ion channels with important physiological functions.The researchers then performed animal experiments with experimental mice and monkeys and found that the peptide toxin SsTx was consistent with the toxic symptoms caused by centipede venom.After extracting this peptide toxin from centipede venom, centipede venom can no longer cause serious symptoms such as myocardial failure.Based on the above experimental results, the researchers believe that SsTx, a peptide toxin in centipede venom, can block KCNQ ion channels, leading to brain, lung and heart dysfunction in prey.Based on the above findings, the experimenters used a drug called "retigabine" in animal models of disease to treat myocardial failure caused by centipede bite poisoning, and achieved good results.、

It is known that this study is not only of great significance to understand the predation mode of toxic animals and the evolutionary strategy of venom molecules, but also has an important guiding role in the clinical treatment of centipede poisoning.In the future, researchers will pay more attention to the effect of retigabine as a clinical drug for centipede bite poisoning patients.

Although centipedes are harmful or even hateful, centipedes are also very good traditional Chinese medicines, which have the effects of detoxification, dispersing knots, dredging menstruation and analgesia.Now that the mystery of centipede venom hurting people has been solved, it seems that centipede, a small organism, will further exert its medicinal value.

For any requests of Peptide for research purpose, welcome to contact us. www.gtpeptide.com , sales1@gotopbio.com.