Vietnamese Heterometrus laoticus scorpion venom: evidence for analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity and isolation of new polypeptide toxin acting on Kv1.3 potassium channel.

The scorpion Heterometrus laoticus (Scorpionidae) inhabits Indochinese peninsula and is widely distributed in South-West Vietnam. Since no human fatalities caused by H. laoticus stings were reported, no systematic characterization of the venom was earlier done. In this study we report on biological activity of the venom from H. laoticus caught in Vietnamese province An Giang. The venom manifested a very low acute toxicity with LD50 of about 190 mg/kg body weight in mice at subcutaneous (s.c.) injection and 12 mg/kg at intravenous injection. The venom analgesic effects using tail immersion and writhing tests as well as anti-inflammatory effect using carrageenan test were analyzed at doses of 9.5 and 19 mg/kg at s.c. injections. It was found that at two doses tested H. laoticus venom showed both anti-nociceptive and anti-inflammatory activity. The venom was fractionated by means of gel-filtration and reversed-phase HPLC. As a result several polypeptide toxins were isolated and new toxin hetlaxin was identified. Its amino acid sequence was determined and binding to the extracellular vestibule of the K⁺-conducting pore of Kv1.1 and Kv1.3 potassium channels was studied. Hetlaxin belongs to the scorpion alpha-toxin family and is the first toxin isolated from H. laoticus venom which possesses high affinity (K(i) 59 nM) to Kv1.3 potassium channel.

Novel human gammapapillomavirus species in a nasal swab.

A divergent human gammapapillomavirus (γ-HPV) genome in a nasal swab from an elderly Finnish patient with respiratory symptoms was genetically characterized. The L1 gene of HPV-Fin864 shared <70% nucleotide identity to other reported γ-HPV genomes, provisionally qualifying it as a new species in the Gammapapillomavirus genus.

Acute diarrhea in West African children: diverse enteric viruses and a novel parvovirus genus.

Parvoviruses cause a variety of mild to severe symptoms or asymptomatic infections in humans and animals. During a viral metagenomic analysis of feces from children with acute diarrhea in Burkina Faso, we identified in decreasing prevalence nucleic acids from anelloviruses, dependoviruses, sapoviruses, enteroviruses, bocaviruses, noroviruses, adenoviruses, parechoviruses, rotaviruses, cosavirus, astroviruses, and hepatitis B virus. Sequences from a highly divergent parvovirus, provisionally called bufavirus, were also detected whose NS1 and VP1 proteins showed <39% and <31% identities to those of previously known parvoviruses. Four percent of the fecal samples were PCR positive for this new parvovirus, including a related bufavirus species showing only 72% identity in VP1. The high degree of genetic divergence of these related genomes from those of other parvoviruses indicates the presence of a proposed new Parvoviridae genus containing at least two species. Studies of the tropism and pathogenicity of these novel parvoviruses will be facilitated by the availability of their genome sequences.