Animal toxins with high therapeutic potential and their use in biomedicine

Abstract

Animal venoms are complex mixtures of proteins, peptides, enzymes and trace elements such as carbohydrates and salts, which serve to immobilize preys and to begin their digestion. Some of these compounds have been isolated and characterized, or described as lethal toxins, while others have powerful actions on specific proteins, such as those involved in blood coagulation. Due to the discovery in 1971 of the peptide that gave rise to captopril and to a better understanding of the potential effects of toxins, animal venoms started to be considered as rich sources of bioactive compounds, which not only provide the necessary tools to decipher molecular details of various physiological processes, but also are a source of inspiration to design and develop a range of new therapeutic agents. This review presents the application of new therapeutic options or models to design them based on certain molecules isolated from snake venoms, with high potential in fields such as biomedicine and pharmacy.