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Review
. 2020 May 21;25(10):2402.
doi: 10.3390/molecules25102402.

Antimicrobials from Venomous Animals: An Overview

Tania Yacoub  1 , Mohamad Rima  2 , Marc Karam  1 , Jean-Marc Sabatier And Ziad Fajloun  3   4   5
Affiliations
Review

Antimicrobials from Venomous Animals: An Overview

Tania Yacoub et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

The inappropriate or excessive use of antimicrobial agents caused an emerging public health problem due to the resulting resistance developed by microbes. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop effective antimicrobial strategies relying on natural agents with different mechanisms of action. Nature has been known to offer many bioactive compounds, in the form of animal venoms, algae, and plant extracts that were used for decades in traditional medicine. Animal venoms and secretions have been deeply studied for their wealth in pharmaceutically promising molecules. As such, they were reported to exhibit many biological activities of interest, such as antibacterial, antiviral, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory activities. In this review, we summarize recent findings on the antimicrobial activities of crude animal venoms/secretions, and describe the peptides that are responsible of these activities.

Keywords: ant; antimicrobial activities; bee; frog; scorpion; snake; spider.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic representation of the main animal venoms/secretions presented in this review for their antimicrobial properties, including antiparasitic, antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal activities.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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