{"id":3861,"date":"2015-02-09T15:04:14","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T20:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/?p=3861"},"modified":"2015-02-09T11:48:53","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T16:48:53","slug":"deadly-coral-snake-venom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/deadly-coral-snake-venom\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadly coral snake venom"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3862\" style=\"width: 343px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/86284.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3862\" class=\"wp-image-3862\" src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/86284-1024x923.jpg\" alt=\"86284\" width=\"333\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/86284-1024x923.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/86284-300x270.jpg 300w, http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/86284.jpg 1610w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 333px) 100vw, 333px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3862\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The coral snake (Micrurus mipartitus) is found in Central and South America. (Photo Credit: Alejandro Sol\u00f3rzano)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Researchers now understand why coral snake venom is so deadly and this knowledge could help provide insight into the biology of human diseases and conditions. Unlike most snake venoms which kill by paralyzing their victims, the venom of the coral snake (<em>Micrurus mipartitus<\/em>) causes deadly seizures.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists have discovered the venom\u2019s active ingredient is a pair of twin proteins, which they have named micrurotoxins. The researchers identified how the two proteins work to create a pattern of seizures and relaxation, similar to epilepsy.<\/p>\n<p>The scientists are hoping to use their new understanding of the \u00a0toxin to advance their understanding of the biology of epilepsy, schizophrenia, and chronic pain.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pnas.org\/cgi\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.1415488112\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Original research paper<\/span><\/a>\u00a0published in <em>PNAS\u00a0<\/em>on\u00a0<strong>February 9<\/strong><span class=\"aBn\" tabindex=\"0\" data-term=\"goog_453723367\"><span class=\"aQJ\"><strong>, 2015<\/strong>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong>Names and affiliations of selected\u00a0authors<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<h4 dir=\"ltr\">Frank Bosmans, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, U.S.A.<\/h4>\n<h4 dir=\"ltr\">Pierre E. Bougis, Aix Marseille Universit\u00e9, France<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers now understand why coral snake venom is so deadly and this knowledge could help provide insight into the biology of human diseases and conditions. Unlike most snake venoms which kill by paralyzing their victims, the venom of the coral snake (Micrurus mipartitus) causes deadly seizures. Scientists have discovered the venom\u2019s active ingredient is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1274,2370,917,909,2369],"class_list":["post-3861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paper-of-interest","tag-dna","tag-epilepsy","tag-evolution","tag-genetics","tag-toxin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/86284.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4DqbN-10h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3864,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861\/revisions\/3864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}