The rise and diversification of spidroins in the deep-time evolution of spiders

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  The rise and diversification of spidroins in the deep-time evolution of spiders Summary The evolutionary success of spiders is often attributed to their stunning ability to produce and utilize silk, but the potential link between the molecular and phenotypic basis of silk production and spider diversification is seldom tested in a robust dated phylogenetic framework. Here, we provide a macroevolutionary context for testing hypotheses by reconstructing and dating the spider tree of life using genomic and transcriptomic data. We searched exhaustively for members of the spider silk protein (spidroin) gene family from omics data and identified them in an iterative phylogenetic pipeline. Four distinct new types of spidroins with atypical sequence characteristics are discovered to be widespread in true spiders with the potential to affect silk properties, as inferred by our phylogenetic generalized linear mixed model and phylogenetic generalized least squares analyses. Combining our ro...

Targeting with toxins: an overview of venom peptides in drug delivery

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Targeting with toxins: an overview of venom peptides in drug delivery

Abstract

Due to the numerous issues associated with many current drug therapies, including lack of efficiency and off-target toxicity, targeted drug delivery has become a critical area of pharmaceutical research. Natural compounds show great promise for active drug targeting, since many of them possess distinct activity towards biomolecules in human body. That includes peptide toxins derived from venoms of various animals, which have often been tailored by evolution to target biomolecules in living systems with high potency and specificity.
In this review, we discuss the current research on the use of venom peptides for specific tissue targeting, in order to deliver therapeutic or diagnostic agents. Various delivery systems, predominantly nanoparticles and bioconjugates, have been developed using either natural, or modified venom peptides. Among these, chlorotoxin, a scorpion-derived toxin, and exendin-4, from lizard venom, have shown particular promise in targeted delivery. While many of these delivery systems have been designed for cancer or nervous system targeting, other conditions have also been approached. Besides therapeutic drug delivery, numerous targeted imaging agents have been developed and investigated for precise visualization of specific conditions.
Mazurs, A., Mauriņa, B., Bandere, D., & Logviss, K. (2025). Targeting with toxins: An overview of venom peptides in drug delivery. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 126193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2025.126193