Talk:Snake venom

I'd like to begin revamping this article. I thought that a snake venoms should be put in a context of (1) all venoms, (2) specific adaptations for the survival of snakes, (3) human morbidity and mortality, and (4) applications to pharmaceuticals etc. My first edits are going to be pragmatic - based on full text literature that I have access to remotely. I hope that those who are interested join in editing the article and engaging in discussion here in discussion. Nancy Sculerati MD

References Used in Rewriting The Article

I intend, on a first pass rough draft, only to include footnotes as I would if I were submitting this review for a medical textbook or a review article for a peer reviewed journal. In either case, I would give specific references only for direct quotes, or to cite an important contribution made to the literature for the first time, or perhaps to reference a controversial issue. I would not and in my professional contributions to textbooks and peer reviewed literature -have not) make a footnote for facts that are generally known by MDs and PhDs familiar with the field, or that are repeated in multiple papers. However, as I think the points raised about using references to guide the reader are valid, I would like to keep track of actual references I do read in composing this article. Therefore I suggest we give this a try - here's a list of references consulted in writing this article. I will keep it as a running list as I contribute, and hopefully others will too, as they do the same. This might be a useful trail to leave on the discussion pages of all articles as we write and edit on Citizendium, or perhaps we could add an additional tab: "references" up there with "article", "discussion" etc.

(1)Encyclopedia of Life Sciences Copyright © 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Last updated: 20 Sep 2006 1.a)Article: Venoms W Dias da Silva, Thereza L Kipnis Standard article Published online: 25 April, 2001 1.B Article: Envenoming: Consequences and Management David A Warrell Standard article Published online: 29 January, 2003

(2)Schmidt JM. Antivenom therapy for snakebites in children: is there evidence?. [Review] [26 refs] [Journal Article. Review] Current Opinion in Pediatrics. 17(2):234-8, 2005 Apr. UI: 15800419

(3)Lewis RL. Gutmann L. Snake venoms and the neuromuscular junction. [Review] [26 refs] [Journal Article. Review] Seminars in Neurology. 24(2):175-9, 2004 Jun. UI: 15257514

(4)Warrell DA. Bites of venomous snakes.[comment]. [Comment. Letter] New England Journal of Medicine. 347(22):1804-5; author reply 1804-5, 2002 Nov 28. UI: 12456862

(5)Filippovich I. Sorokina N. Masci PP. de Jersey J. Whitaker AN. Winzor DJ. Gaffney PJ. Lavin MF. A family of textilinin genes, two of which encode proteins with antihaemorrhagic properties. [Journal Article] British Journal of Haematology. 119(2):376-84, 2002 Nov.

(6) Gold BS. Dart RC. Barish RA. Bites of venomous snakes.[see comment]. [Review] [37 refs] [Journal Article. Review] New England Journal of Medicine. 347(5):347-56, 2002 Aug 1. UI: 12151473

(7)Currie BJ. Clinical toxicology: a tropical Australian perspective. [Review] [3 refs] [Journal Article. Review] Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. 22(1):73-8, 2000 Feb. UI: 10688264

(8)White J. Bites and stings from venomous animals: a global overview. [Review] [10 refs] [Journal Article. Review] Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. 22(1):65-8, 2000 Feb. UI: 10688262

(9)Senior K. Taking the bite out of snake venoms. [News] Lancet. 353(9168):1946, 1999 Jun 5. UI: 10371585

(10) Trinh, Kiem Xuan; Trinh, Long Xuan; et al. The Production Of bungarus Candidus Antivenom From Horses Immunized With Venom & it's Application For The Treatment Of Snake Bite Patients In Vietnam: 75. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. 27(2):230, April 2005.

(11)Prescott, Ruth A. BSc (Hons, London) *; Potter, Paul C. MB, ChB, MD, FCP(SA), BSc (Hons) *+ Hypersensitivity to airborne spitting cobra snake venom. Annals of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology. 94(5):600-603, May 2005.

(12)Harris, J B 1; Goonetilleke, A 2 Animal poisons and the nervous system: what the neurologist needs to know. Neurology in Practice. 75 Supplement III:iii40-iii46, September 2004.

(13) Confronting the Neglected Problem of Snake Bite Envenoming: The Need for a Global Partnership Gutiérrez JM, Theakston RDG, Warrell DA PLoS Medicine Vol. 3, No. 6, e150 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0030150

(14) Ontogenetic Variation in Venom Composition and Diet of Crotalus oreganus concolor: A Case of Venom Paedomorphosis?Stephen P. Mackessy, Kwame Williams, Kyle G. Ashton Copeia Volume 2003, Issue 4 (December 2003) pp. 769–782 DOI: 10.1643/HA03-037.1

(15) Comparison of Active Venom Components between Eastern Brown Snakes Collected from South Australia and Queensland Simone Flight1, 3 , Peter Mirtschin2 and Paul P. Masci3 Ecotoxicology © Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2005

(16)Mackessy S.P. 2002. Biochemistry and phamacology of colubrid snake venoms. J. Toxicol.-Toxin Rev. 21: 43–83.

(17) Avila-Aguero ML. Paris MM. Hu S. Peterson PK. Gutierrez JM. Lomonte B. Faingezicht I. Snakebite Study Group. Systemic cytokine response in children bitten by snakes in Costa Rica. [Clinical Trial. Journal Article. Randomized Controlled Trial] Pediatric Emergency Care. 17(6):425-9, 2001 Dec. UI: 11753186

(18) Sano-Martins IS. Tomy SC. Campolina D. Dias MB. de Castro SC. de Sousa-e-Silva MC. Amaral CF. Rezende NA. Kamiguti AS. Warrell DA. Theakston RD. Coagulopathy following lethal and non-lethal envenoming of humans by the South American rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus) in Brazil. [Journal Article] Qjm. 94(10):551-9, 2001 Oct. UI: 11588214

(19) Ben Abraham R. Winkler E. Eshel G. Barzilay Z. Paret G. Snakebite poisoning in children--a call for unified clinical guidelines. [Journal Article. Multicenter Study] European Journal of Emergency Medicine. 8(3):189-92, 2001 Sep. UI: 11587463 (note: covers Israel)

(20) Lee BC. Hwang SH. Bae JC. Kwon SB. Brainstem infarction following Korean viper bite. [Case Reports. Journal Article] Neurology. 56(9):1244-5, 2001 May 8. UI: 11342702

(21) Tanen DA. Ruha AM. Graeme KA. Curry SC. Fischione MA. Rattlesnake envenomations: unusual case presentations. [Case Reports. Journal Article] Archives of Internal Medicine. 161(3):474-9, 2001 Feb 12. UI: 11176775 (includes several case history of individuals intoxicated with alcohol who purposely handled rattlesnakes)

(22)Suchard JR. LoVecchio F. Envenomations by rattlesnakes thought to be dead. [Case Reports. Letter] New England Journal of Medicine. 340(24):1930, 1999 Jun 17. UI: 10375322 (also incudes case histories of intoxicated people handling rattlesnakes)

(23)Boyer LV. Seifert SA. Clark RF. McNally JT. Williams SR. Nordt SP. Walter FG. Dart RC. Recurrent and persistent coagulopathy following pit viper envenomation. [Journal Article] Archives of Internal Medicine. 159(7):706-10, 1999 Apr 12. UI: 10218750 (article cites cases where coagulopathy lasted 2 weeks +)

(24)Milani Junior R. Jorge MT. de Campos FP. Martins FP. Bousso A. Cardoso JL. Ribeiro LA. Fan HW. Franca FO. Sano-Martins IS. Cardoso D. Ide Fernandez C. Fernandes JC. Aldred VL. Sandoval MP. Puorto G. Theakston RD. Warrell DA. Snake bites by the jararacucu (Bothrops jararacussu): clinicopathological studies of 29 proven cases in Sao Paulo State, Brazil. [Case Reports. Journal Article] Qjm. 90(5):323-34, 1997 May. UI: 9205667

(25) Murthy JM. Kishore LT. Naidu KS. Cerebral infarction after envenomation by viper.[erratum appears in J Comput Assist Tomogr 1997 May-Jun;21(3):followi]. [Case Reports. Journal Article] Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography. 21(1):35-7, 1997 Jan-Feb. UI: 9022766 (India, case history young man, pit viper bite, CT scan images)

(26)Ramirez M.S., Sanchez E.E., Garcia-Prieto C., Perez J.C., Rodriguez Chapa G., McKeller M.R., Ramirez R., De Anda Y. Screening for fibrinolytic activity in eight Viperid venoms(1999) Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - C Pharmacology Toxicology and Endocrinology, 124 (1), pp. 91-98.

(27)Asher O. Lupu-Meiri M. Jensen BS. Paperna T. Oron Y. Fuchs S. How does the mongoose cope with alpha-bungarotoxin? Analysis of the mongoose muscle AChR alpha-subunit. [Journal Article] Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 841:97-100, 1998 May 13. UI: 9668225

How many snake species- how many are venomous?

I have found so many numbers here that disagree I thought I'd keep tack of them, and hopefully sort this out into some reasonable statement. On reviewing the titles of articles on snake species in such journals as Copeia over several years, it is apparent that the number of snake species has been changing. With the advent of DNA sequencing and other forms of genomic testing, some species that had thought to be different based on morphologic examination of hemi-penes, etc, have been lumped together, and with initial herpetological examination of some geographic regions, new species have been described. This may account for the variation reported in the number of snake species and the number of venomous species in various articles on snake venoms in the medical literature.Nancy Sculerati MD

1)"There are ~2340 species of snakes living on the earth and more than 420 species are venomous." quoted from Lewis RL. Gutmann L. Snake venoms and the neuromuscular junction. [Review] [26 refs] [Journal Article. Review] Seminars in Neurology. 24(2):175-9, 2004 Jun. UI: 15257514 who reference Herdon G Dowling's Book: Dowling HG, Duellman WE. Systematic Herpetology: A Synopsis of Families and Higher Categories. New York: Hiss Publications; 1978:100–102

2) Approximately 15 percent of the 3000 species of snakes found worldwide are considered to be dangerous to humans quoted from Gold BS. Dart RC. Barish RA. Bites of venomous snakes.[see comment]. [Review] [37 refs] [Journal Article. Review] New England Journal of Medicine. 347(5):347-56, 2002 Aug 1. UI: 12151473

3)There are more than 3,000 species of snakes in the world, but only about 350 species are venomous and only the minority of these are likely to cause significant envenoming in humans. -this is followed by a statement that 4 families of venomous snakes exist - leaving out the sea snakes.White J. Bites and stings from venomous animals: a global overview. [Review] [10 refs] [Journal Article. Review] Therapeutic Drug Monitoring. 22(1):65-8, 2000 Feb. UI: 10688262

The best figures I can give you are "over 2.500 species of living snakes" according to McDiarmid et al. (1999). This is a figure mentioned in the first of a multi-volume checklist, subsequent volumes of which have yet to be published. The on-line ITIS database is based on that first volume, as well as Dr. McDiarmid's working manuscript for the next one. Luckily, the lists of venomous snakes seem to be complete and I've counted them for you:

Atractaspididae	Mole vipers, African burrowing asps, stiletto snakes	64
Elapidae	Cobras, kraits, coral snakes, mambas, sea snakes	321
Viperidae	Vipers, pit vipers, rattlesnakes	217
Total		602

There are also quite a few colubrids that are can considered venomous, but only three that I know of have been the cause of any documented fatalities. That would bring the total to 605, or about 24% of all known species of snakes. --Jaap Winius 14:32, 26 December 2006 (CST)

Image

Nancy, would be this image necessary? --Versuri 17:06, 25 December 2006 (CST)

Just a minor nudge really. AchE really works by degrading free ACh not by inactivating bound ACh - binding is a dynamic short lived process anyway so molecules are continually hopping on and off, reducing the extracellular concentration keeps this short. Think that's about the limits of my particular knowledge - alpha bungarotoxin is still used very extensively in characterising receptors. Article looking good, and I'll pop by now and again, see how I can helpGareth Leng 09:07, 26 December 2006 (CST)