Vintage venoms: proteomic and pharmacological stability of snake venoms stored for up to eight decades

For over a century, venom samples from wild snakes have been collected and stored around the world. However, the quality of storage conditions for "vintage" venoms has rarely been assessed. The goal of this study was to determine whether such historical venom samples are still biochemically and pharmacologically viable for research purposes, or if new sample efforts are needed. In total, 52 samples spanning 5 genera and 13 species with regional variants of some species (e.g., 14 different populations of Notechis scutatus) were analysed by a combined proteomic and pharmacological approach to determine protein structural stability and bioactivity. When venoms were not exposed to air during storage, the proteomic results were virtually indistinguishable from that of fresh venom and bioactivity was equivalent or only slightly reduced. By contrast, a sample of Acanthophis antarcticus venom that was exposed to air (due to a loss of integrity of the rubber stopper) suffered significant degradation as evidenced by the proteomics profile. Interestingly, the neurotoxicity of this sample was nearly the same as fresh venom, indicating that degradation may have occurred in the free N- or C-terminus chains of the proteins, rather than at the tips of loops where the functional residues are located. These results suggest that these and other vintage venom collections may be of continuing value in toxin research. This is particularly important as many snake species worldwide are declining due to habitat destruction or modification. For some venoms (such as N. scutatus from Babel Island, Flinders Island, King Island and St. Francis Island) these were the first analyses ever conducted and these vintage samples may represent the only venom ever collected from these unique island forms of tiger snakes. Such vintage venoms may therefore represent the last remaining stocks of some local populations and thus are precious resources. These venoms also have significant historical value as the Oxyuranus venoms analysed include samples from the first coastal taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) collected for antivenom production (the snake that killed the collector Kevin Budden), as well as samples from the first Oxyuranus microlepidotus specimen collected after the species' rediscovery in 1976. These results demonstrate that with proper storage techniques, venom samples can retain structural and pharmacological stability. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Proteomics of non-model organisms. Biological significance: •These results show that with proper storage venoms are useful for decades.•These results have direct implications for the use of rare venoms

Effects of nuclear Coulomb field on two-meson correlations

The influence of the nuclear Coulomb field on two-pion and two-kaon correlations is investigated for sources with charge number of Z=160. The source radii extracted from the correlation function determined in sidewards and outwards direction are remarkably affected for meson pairs with average momenta below 200 MeV/c. (orig.)8 refs.Available from TIB Hannover: RR 1847(125) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Forschungszentrum Rossendorf, Institute of Nuclear and Hadron Physics. Annual report 1997

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RR 1847(98-215) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Forschungszentrum Rossendorf, Institute of Nuclear and Hadron Physics. Report January 1998 - June 1999

The Forschungszentrum Rossendorf (FZR) at Dresden is a research center devoted to biomedical, environmental, materials, safety and nuclear research: it belongs to the Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft G. W. Leibniz (WGL), one of the German national institutions responsible for extra-university research. Out of the five institutes of the FZR the Institute of Nuclear and Hadron Physics (IKH) is rather strongly engaged in fundamental research related to subatomic systems, but it also investigates and exploits the possibilities for the transfer of experimental and theoretical knowledge and techniques form particle and nuclear physics to other fields of science. The most remarkable example of such technology transfer is the strong involvement of the Institute in the preparative work for the Radiation Source ELBE presently under construction at Rossendorf. As this instrument is centered around a small superconducting electron accelerator nuclear physicists can well contribute with their experience gained at larger machines elsewhere. The project electron beam of 1 mA at up to 40 MeV will produce intensive secondary radiation: for the medium and far infrared the free electron laser (FEL) principle will be used, whereas keV-X-rays are produced via electron channeling and MeV photons as bremsstrahlung; from the latter neutron beams of interest for cross section measurements will be generated. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 1847(271) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Nouveautés dans la prise en charge de l’asthme [Novelties in the Treatment of Asthma]

For general practitioners there have been important novelties in the treatment of asthma due to recent modifications of the international guidelines from Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA). In Step 1, use of short-acting beta2-agonists (SABA) without concomitant inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) as controller is no longer recommended for lack of efficacy and safety reasons. Instead, low dose ICS-formoterol as needed is recommended. In Step 5, in patients with severe uncontrolled asthma GINA recommends targeted biologic therapies like interleukin antibodies. Asthma patients presenting simultaneously with symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) should receive treatment containing ICS. Independent of the current corona pandemic, GINA recommendations stay in place

Collective effects and multifragmentation in heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies within a hybrid model

Central and semi-central Au+Au collisions at 150 AxMeV and 250 AxMeV are investigated in the framework of a hybrid model with dynamical and statistical components. Starting from the BUU approach an ansatz for the Wigner function is made which describes thermal and collective motion of the nucleons and models the transition from the one-source to the two-source behaviour. Anisotropic flow energies and temperatures as well as angular momentum are extracted. Nucleonic flow and pre-equilibrium emission reduce considerably the excitation energy of the matter. The cluster formation is described by the Copenhagen multifragmentation model. Charge spectra, energy spectra and two-particle correlations of the fragments are reproduced. Agreement with experiment can be improved by assuming a reduced transverse flow. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 1847(95-71) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Effects of flow on intermediate mass fragments in central gold on gold collisions

Nearly central Au on Au collisions at 150 MeV/u are investigated. The properties of the fragmenting source are determined by the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck approach. A statistical multifragmentation model including secondary decay and Coulomb expansion is used to describe the final decay. A reduced anisotropic radial flow is needed to reproduce the relative velocity distributions. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 1847(94-41) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman