Abstract.
A large variety of snake toxins evolved from PLA2 digestive enzymes through a process of ‘accelerated evolution’. These toxins have different tissue targets, membrane receptors and mechanisms of alteration of the cell plasma membrane. Two of the most commonly induced effects by venom PLA2s are neurotoxicity and myotoxicity. Here, we will discuss how these snake toxins achieve a similar cellular lesion, which is evolutionarily highly conserved, despite the differences listed above. They cause an initial plasma membrane perturbation which promotes a large increase of the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration leading to cell degeneration, following modes that we discuss in detail for muscle cells and for the neuromuscular junction. The different systemic pathophysiological consequences caused by these toxins are not due to different mechanisms of cell toxicity, but to the intrinsic anatomical and physiological properties of the targeted tissues and cells.
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Received 05 March 2008; received after revision 08 April 2008; accepted 29 April 2008
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Montecucco, C., Gutiérrez, J.M. & Lomonte, B. Cellular pathology induced by snake venom phospholipase A2 myotoxins and neurotoxins: common aspects of their mechanisms of action. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 65, 2897–2912 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-008-8113-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-008-8113-3