Amphibian Toxins and Poisons

A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Venoms".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2020) | Viewed by 3176

Special Issue Editor

Amphibian Evolution Lab, Biology Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Interests: evolutionary origin; diversification and functional innovation of amphibian skin-secreted defense peptides; functioning and ecological significance of amphibian poisons; genetic mechanisms underlying the evolution of gene-encoded animal toxins (peptides and proteins)

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

To counter the threat of predation, the skin glands of many amphibians are capable of storing and secreting toxins. In contrast to venomous animals that use fangs or a stinger to inject their toxins, amphibians deliver their skin secretions through a predator’s gastrointestinal tract. This delivery mode, often used to distinguish poisons from venoms, is likely to pose constraints on the physicochemistry and functioning of the toxins involved. Yet, despite these constraints, amphibian poisons represent one of the most diversified defense adaptations in the animal kingdom. Since the 1960s, the awareness that many of their toxins have a therapeutic potential, has fueled decades of research, with a prominent pharmacological scope. Nowadays, amphibian toxinology has branched out to various life science areas, including natural history, ecology, physiology, evolutionary biology, molecular genetics, and conservation biology.

For this Special Issue, we welcome contributions related to any of the aforementioned research fields. More specifically, we are interested in original research papers that consider the following:

  1. report on the discovery of toxins with new structural and functional properties, or add to our understanding of their diversity across taxa;
  2. provide insight into the biosynthesis and functioning of amphibian toxins, and their potential application in drug design or medicine;
  3. investigate the evolution of amphibian gene-encoded toxins (peptides or proteins), and/or use them as case models of functional innovation and molecular adaptation;
  4. use amphibians as a case model to address the ecological and evolutionary questions related to toxicity and associated phenomena like aposematism and mimicry;
  5. investigate how amphibian toxicity has affected the biology of predators, and perhaps entangled them into an evolutionary arms race; besides molecular adaptation (e.g., toxin resistance), studies may focus on morphological or behavioral adaptation;
  6. contribute to conservation biology by investigating the impact of invasive poisonous amphibians on native predator faunas.

Prof. Kim Roelants
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • amphibians
  • predators
  • poison
  • toxin
  • evolution
  • ecology
  • peptides
  • alkaloids
  • steroids

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 744 KiB  
Communication
Antinociceptive Activity of the Skin Secretion of Phyllomedusa rohdei (Amphibia, Anura)
by Elena Lucia Anna Malpezzi-Marinho, Cristiane Isabel Silva Zanoni, Graziella Rigueira Molska, Camila Paraventi, Raphael Wuo-Silva, Laís Fernanda Berro, Carlos Amilcar Parada, Eduardo Koji Tamura and Eduardo Ary Villela Marinho
Toxins 2020, 12(9), 589; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/toxins12090589 - 11 Sep 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2735
Abstract
Pain is a distressful experience that can have a major impact on an individual’s quality of life. The need for new and better analgesics has been further intensified in light of the current opioid epidemic. Substances obtained from amphibians have been shown to [...] Read more.
Pain is a distressful experience that can have a major impact on an individual’s quality of life. The need for new and better analgesics has been further intensified in light of the current opioid epidemic. Substances obtained from amphibians have been shown to contain bioactive peptides that exert analgesic effects. The genus Phyllomedusa represents an important source of peptides and bioactive components. The aim of this study was to investigate the antinociceptive effects of the skin secretion of Phyllomedusa rohdei in rodent models of pain. The crude skin extract of P. rohdei was tested in different pain models: acetic acid-induced writhing test (mice), formalin test (rats), Von Frey electronic test for hypernociception induced by PGE2 (rats), and hot plate test (mice). Motor-impairing effects were tested using the rota-rod test. The results showed that the skin extract of P. rohdei exerted antinociceptive effects in all pain models tested. Particularly, the highest dose tested of the skin extract decreased acetic acid-induced writhing by 93%, completely blocked formalin-induced nociception both during the acute and inflammatory phases of the test, PGE2-induced hypernociception by 73% and increased latency to paw withdrawal in the hot plate test by 300%. The effects observed in the hot plate test were reversed by pretreatment with selective µ and κ, but not δ, opioid receptor antagonists, indicating a mechanism of action dependent on µ and κ opioid receptors. The results were not influenced by sedative effects. Further studies remain necessary to reveal the specific compounds involved in the antinociceptive effects of P. rohdei skin extract as a new therapeutic tool in pain management. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Amphibian Toxins and Poisons)
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