2024-08-07 11:21:05
The paper scorpion, which is only a few millimeters long, hunts house dust mites, fire dust and paper lice. It uses toxins that researchers have been able to examine for the first time – and found substances that have a strong effect against the dreaded hospital germs.
Scorpion venom contains molecules that have an antibacterial effect against harmful hospital germs. Researchers came across this and fully characterized the toxin for the first time, said the Senckenberg Group for Natural Research in Frankfurt am Main.
Recently presented in the journal “iScience”. The results
Paper scorpions, Chelifer cancroides, belong to the pseudoscorpion family and hunt house dust mites, dust and paper lice in apartments and pests in beehives. Although they represent a diverse group of arachnids with 3,000 species worldwide, pseudoscorpions – unlike scorpions – are little known and understudied as venomous animals. They resemble their larger relatives with their claws, which are long compared to their bodies, although their stomachs are not divided and do not have poisonous stings.
Because of their small size of one to seven millimeters, their venom, which they inject into their prey through venom glands on their bones, has been difficult to analyze. A group of scientists from the LOEWE Center for Interpreting Genomics Diversity and other institutions successfully cloned all the known elements of the recently discovered venomous family of the paper scorpion and studied their function. The team refers to them as “Checacine.”
They discovered a “surprisingly strong effect” against a popular hospital germ, called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). This bacteria is resistant to the antibiotic methicillin and causes infections in people that are difficult to treat, including after surgical procedures. The growth of the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is responsible for many lung, wound and urinary tract infections, can also be blocked with new toxins.
However, the structure and effects of the poison still need to be further investigated, as data also show that the elements can cause inflammatory reactions in humans, according to the statement. “Animal juices are a real estate full of possible drug candidates, but only a small part has been investigated so far,” says research director Tim Lüddecke, who heads the small group of “Animal Venomics” at the Fraunhofer Institute and the Justus Liebig University in Giessen.
They have developed biological systems and technical methods to investigate especially small venomous animals that are difficult to analyze. “We focus mainly on arachnids. Lüddecke says: “They are, so to speak, master chemists among venomous animals: their venom is particularly complex, and they hold great medical promise.” The results on checacins will show “how useful it is to see the unknown world of toxins from small reptiles.”
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