Scorpion peptides: potential use for new drug development

Abstract

Several peptides contained in scorpion fluids showed diverse array of biological activities with high specificities to their targeted sites. Many investigations outlined their potent effects against microbes and showed their potential to modulate various biological mechanisms that are involved in immune, nervous, cardiovascular, and neoplastic diseases. Because of their important structural and functional diversity, it is projected that scorpion-derived peptides could be used to develop new specific drugs. This review summarizes relevant findings improving their use as valuable tools for new drugs development.

Figure 1

Schematic proposed models for scorpion toxins use in cancer and metastasis therapy. Scorpion toxins are dotted with high specificity to targeted specific cells receptors enabling them to be potent candidate for drugs carrier. (a) Radioactive iodine delivery into brain gliomas using chlorotoxin as a guider to target cancerous cells. (b) The chlorotoxin triggers gene transfection for cancer cells therapy. (c) Direct effect of pertussis toxin in abolishing metastasis. It did inhibit migration (evasion) through blocking the transduction signal of the lysophosphatidic acid pathway.

Figure 2

Schematic model representing the process in need to distillate scorpion derivatives with potential clinical use.