Variability of sodium channel toxins in Mesobuthus thersites Advised toolkit for comprehensive venomics

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Variability of sodium channel toxins in Mesobuthus thersites Advised toolkit for comprehensive venomics Abstract Natural venoms constitute vast combinatorial libraries of ion channel ligands with unprecedented properties including high affinity and selectivity. Scorpion venoms in particular are abundant in sodium and potassium channel ligands representing small proteins or peptides, which are traditionally studied by transcriptomics and proteomics approaches. However, a universal algorithm to pursue the examination of multicomponent peptide-rich mixtures such as venoms is lacking. Here we present a general scheme to the analysis of scorpion toxin arsenal with focus on sodium channel ligands. We explored the venom of the Central Asian scorpion Mesobuthus thersites using venom gland transcriptomics and three proteomic methods. We compared traditional automated annotation by Blast2GO with our custom approach based on regular expressions. We found that the traditional annotation is compro...

Mitigating the snakebite crisis in India: a narrative review of efforts by the madras crocodile bank trust

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Mitigating the snakebite crisis in India: a narrative review of efforts by the madras crocodile bank trust

Snakebite is a deadly yet severely neglected public health crisis. Each year, venomous snakebites kill up to 140,000 people per year and leave another 400,000 permanently disabled. About half of the world’s snakebite deaths occur in India, and an unknown number of snakes are killed out of fear and retaliation. This article examines the multifaceted efforts of the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (MCBT), a leading grassroots organization tackling SBE through education, advocacy, research, and venom production. MCBT’s initiatives revolve mostly around education and outreach. These include the creation of educational films and posters in regional languages, which are distributed directly to communities. MCBT coordinates a network of so-called “snake rescuers” who remove snakes from houses and relocate them away from human dwellings, while delivering important snakebite prevention and first aid information to communities. MCBT coordinates training programs for rescuers and clinicians, sharing herpetological, first aid, and technical snake handling knowledge through a train-the-trainers model. Besides education, MCBT collaborates with state and national governments, including India’s first National Action Plan for Snakebite Envenoming (NAPSE). The organization also supports the Irular Snake Catchers’ Industrial Cooperative Society (ISCICS), India’s largest venom supplier, through technical and administrative support. Through this work, MCBT works to address sustainability and quality control challenges within the current venom extraction model. By detailing MCBT’s activities, key insights, and future directions, this article aims to shed light on the ongoing challenges of snakebite envenoming in India and the concrete steps being taken toward more effective, sustainable solutions.

Chandrasekharuni, G., Vasquez, C., & Whitaker, R. (2026). Mitigating the snakebite crisis in India: A narrative review of efforts by the madras crocodile bank trust. Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science, 3, 1723953. https://doi.org/10.3389/famrs.2025.1723953