Animal venoms are a mixture of bioactive compounds produced as weapons and used primarily to immo... more Animal venoms are a mixture of bioactive compounds produced as weapons and used primarily to immobilize and kill preys. As a result of the high potency and specificity for various physiological targets, many toxins from animal venoms have emerged as possible drugs for the medication of diverse disorders, including cardiovascular diseases. Captopril, which inhibits the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), was the first successful venom-based drug and a notable example of rational drug design. Since captopril was developed, many studies have discovered novel bradykinin-potentiating peptides (BPPs) with actions on the cardiovascular system. Natriuretic peptides (NPs) have also been found in animal venoms and used as template to design new drugs with applications in cardiovascular diseases. Among the anti-arrhythmic peptides, GsMTx-4 was discovered to be a toxin that selectively inhibits the stretch-activated cation channels (SACs), which are involved in atrial fibrillation. The present review describes the main components isolated from animal venoms that act on the cardiovascular system and presents a brief summary of venomous animals and their venom apparatuses.
Carolina Campolina Rebello Horta*, Maria Chatzaki, Barbara Bruna Ribeiro Oliveira-Mendes, Anderso... more Carolina Campolina Rebello Horta*, Maria Chatzaki, Barbara Bruna Ribeiro Oliveira-Mendes, Anderson Oliveira do Carmo, Flavia de Faria Siqueira and Evanguedes Kalapothakis Departamento de Biologia Geral, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil Departamento de Biologia Geral, Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Ciencias Biologicas: Fisiologia e Farmacologia, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupoli, Greece
Summary Altella emilieae Lissner, n. sp. is described from specimens collected from a beach in Cr... more Summary Altella emilieae Lissner, n. sp. is described from specimens collected from a beach in Crete and in upwash on the coast of Telendos, Dodecanese islands, Greece. The affinity of this species to its congeners and its ecology is briefly discussed.
Mass media plays an important role in the construction and circulation of risk perception associa... more Mass media plays an important role in the construction and circulation of risk perception associated with animals. Widely feared groups such as spiders frequently end up in the spotlight of traditional and social media. We compiled an expert-curated global database on the online newspaper coverage of human-spider encounters over the past ten years (2010–2020). This database includes information about the location of each human-spider encounter reported in the news article and a quantitative characterisation of the content—location, presence of photographs of spiders and bites, number and type of errors, consultation of experts, and a subjective assessment of sensationalism. In total, we collected 5348 unique news articles from 81 countries in 40 languages. The database refers to 211 identified and unidentified spider species and 2644 unique human-spider encounters (1121 bites and 147 as deadly bites). To facilitate data reuse, we explain the main caveats that need to be made when an...
In the Internet era, the digital architecture that keeps us connected and informed may collateral... more In the Internet era, the digital architecture that keeps us connected and informed may collaterally amplify the spread of misinformation and falsehood1,2. The magnitude of this problem is gaining global relevance3, as evidence accumulates that misinformation interferes with democratic processes and undermines collective responses to environmental and health crises4,5. Therefore, understanding how misinformation generates and spreads is becoming a pressing scientific, societal, and political challenge3. Advances in this area are delayed because high-resolution data on coherent information systems are difficult and time-consuming to acquire at global scales. We collated a high-resolution database of online newspaper articles on spider-human interactions. Spiders are widely feared animals6 that frequently appear in the spotlight of the global press7,8. Our database is unique in that it covers a global scale (5,348 news articles from 81 countries and 40 languages) while providing an exp...
Crete (Aegean Sea, Greece), like other Mediterranean islands, has a complex palaeogeographical hi... more Crete (Aegean Sea, Greece), like other Mediterranean islands, has a complex palaeogeographical history, including several cycles of fragmentation into palaeoislands and subsequent reconnection. Here, we use the Cretan trap-door spider Cyrtocarenum cunicularium as a model organism to explore the importance of within-island evolutionary processes, such as palaeogeographic events and climatic changes. We assessed the phylogeny, population clustering and historical demography of 61 specimens with mitochondrial (COI) and nuclear (H3) markers. We investigated the isolation-by-distance and spatial diffusion processes that have shaped their past and current distribution and estimated the effect of niche divergence, using species distribution modelling. Two genetic lineages have continuously been distributed in the west and east part of Crete during the last 2million years. Their genetic structure is concordant with Crete’s fragmentation into palaeoislands during the Pliocene and additionall...
Animal venoms are a mixture of bioactive compounds produced as weapons and used primarily to immo... more Animal venoms are a mixture of bioactive compounds produced as weapons and used primarily to immobilize and kill preys. As a result of the high potency and specificity for various physiological targets, many toxins from animal venoms have emerged as possible drugs for the medication of diverse disorders, including cardiovascular diseases. Captopril, which inhibits the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), was the first successful venom-based drug and a notable example of rational drug design. Since captopril was developed, many studies have discovered novel bradykinin-potentiating peptides (BPPs) with actions on the cardiovascular system. Natriuretic peptides (NPs) have also been found in animal venoms and used as template to design new drugs with applications in cardiovascular diseases. Among the anti-arrhythmic peptides, GsMTx-4 was discovered to be a toxin that selectively inhibits the stretch-activated cation channels (SACs), which are involved in atrial fibrillation. The present review describes the main components isolated from animal venoms that act on the cardiovascular system and presents a brief summary of venomous animals and their venom apparatuses.
Carolina Campolina Rebello Horta*, Maria Chatzaki, Barbara Bruna Ribeiro Oliveira-Mendes, Anderso... more Carolina Campolina Rebello Horta*, Maria Chatzaki, Barbara Bruna Ribeiro Oliveira-Mendes, Anderson Oliveira do Carmo, Flavia de Faria Siqueira and Evanguedes Kalapothakis Departamento de Biologia Geral, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil Departamento de Biologia Geral, Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Ciencias Biologicas: Fisiologia e Farmacologia, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupoli, Greece
Summary Altella emilieae Lissner, n. sp. is described from specimens collected from a beach in Cr... more Summary Altella emilieae Lissner, n. sp. is described from specimens collected from a beach in Crete and in upwash on the coast of Telendos, Dodecanese islands, Greece. The affinity of this species to its congeners and its ecology is briefly discussed.
Mass media plays an important role in the construction and circulation of risk perception associa... more Mass media plays an important role in the construction and circulation of risk perception associated with animals. Widely feared groups such as spiders frequently end up in the spotlight of traditional and social media. We compiled an expert-curated global database on the online newspaper coverage of human-spider encounters over the past ten years (2010–2020). This database includes information about the location of each human-spider encounter reported in the news article and a quantitative characterisation of the content—location, presence of photographs of spiders and bites, number and type of errors, consultation of experts, and a subjective assessment of sensationalism. In total, we collected 5348 unique news articles from 81 countries in 40 languages. The database refers to 211 identified and unidentified spider species and 2644 unique human-spider encounters (1121 bites and 147 as deadly bites). To facilitate data reuse, we explain the main caveats that need to be made when an...
In the Internet era, the digital architecture that keeps us connected and informed may collateral... more In the Internet era, the digital architecture that keeps us connected and informed may collaterally amplify the spread of misinformation and falsehood1,2. The magnitude of this problem is gaining global relevance3, as evidence accumulates that misinformation interferes with democratic processes and undermines collective responses to environmental and health crises4,5. Therefore, understanding how misinformation generates and spreads is becoming a pressing scientific, societal, and political challenge3. Advances in this area are delayed because high-resolution data on coherent information systems are difficult and time-consuming to acquire at global scales. We collated a high-resolution database of online newspaper articles on spider-human interactions. Spiders are widely feared animals6 that frequently appear in the spotlight of the global press7,8. Our database is unique in that it covers a global scale (5,348 news articles from 81 countries and 40 languages) while providing an exp...
Crete (Aegean Sea, Greece), like other Mediterranean islands, has a complex palaeogeographical hi... more Crete (Aegean Sea, Greece), like other Mediterranean islands, has a complex palaeogeographical history, including several cycles of fragmentation into palaeoislands and subsequent reconnection. Here, we use the Cretan trap-door spider Cyrtocarenum cunicularium as a model organism to explore the importance of within-island evolutionary processes, such as palaeogeographic events and climatic changes. We assessed the phylogeny, population clustering and historical demography of 61 specimens with mitochondrial (COI) and nuclear (H3) markers. We investigated the isolation-by-distance and spatial diffusion processes that have shaped their past and current distribution and estimated the effect of niche divergence, using species distribution modelling. Two genetic lineages have continuously been distributed in the west and east part of Crete during the last 2million years. Their genetic structure is concordant with Crete’s fragmentation into palaeoislands during the Pliocene and additionall...
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Papers by Maria Chatzaki