Recommended Reading: Tarantulas Through a Different Lens

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  Recommended Reading: Tarantulas Through a Different Lens I recently had the opportunity to read an excellent article by Cesar Medina Davila , conservation biologist, science communicator, and founder of Wildlife Nomads , titled “Tarantulas: 12 Facts That Change How You See Them.” For those who follow Arácnido Taxonomy, the subject matter will certainly be familiar. What I particularly appreciate about Cesar’s article, however, is its accessibility. Tarantulas are remarkably diverse animals, yet much of the general public’s understanding of them remains shaped by fear, exaggerated portrayals, and the tendency to treat more than a thousand species as though they were essentially the same animal. Cesar approaches the subject from a different direction. Drawing in part from his own experience working with tarantulas, he introduces readers to the biology behind these animals and, perhaps more importantly, challenges some of the assumptions that have followed them for generations. More...

The venom of Cyriopagopus schmidti spider contains a natural huwentoxin-IV analogue with unexpected improved analgesic potential

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The venom of Cyriopagopus schmidti spider contains a natural huwentoxin-IV analogue with unexpected improved analgesic potential

The venom of Cyriopagopus schmidti spider has been extensively investigated, thereby allowing the identification of numerous new natural peptides. Many of these peptides are active on ion channels and several of them occur from post-translational processing. In order to further identify new entities, we screened this venom against five different human voltage-gated sodium (hNav) channels. We illustrate the unusual richness of this venom in targeting this wide variety of hNav channels. We confirm the identity of previously discovered peptides active on these ion channels type (huwentoxin (HwTx)-I, HwTx-II and HwTx-IV), indicating the efficacy of the screening process by automated patch-clamp. We also identified a novel analogue of HwTx-IV that differs by the absence of amidation and the presence of an extra C-terminal Gly residue. Interestingly, this analogue is less potent than HwTx-IV itself in blocking hNav1.7 in cell lines, but turns out to be significantly more potent in TTX-sensitive dorsal root ganglia neurons. Because of this unexpected finding, this novel analogue turns out to be a more potent analgesic than HwTx-IV itself without presenting most of the Nav1.6-related toxic effects of HwTx-IV.

Antunes, A., Montnach, J., Khakh, K., Lopez, L., Thomas, B., Jaquillard, L., Servent, D., Béroud, R., Cohen, C. J., Benoit, E., & De Waard, M. (2025). The venom of Cyriopagopus schmidti spider contains a natural huwentoxin-IV analogue with unexpected improved analgesic potential. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 16, 1566312. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2025.1566312