Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting NetworkChemistry ConnectionsChemistry of Snake VenomEpisode # 6 Segment 1: Introduction to Snake Venoms

• 2 Main categories of venomous snakes
• Elapids 
• Elapids
• Any of 300 species of venomous snakes (all venomous)
• Short, fixed fangs at the front of the Jaw
• Long, slender bodies with small heads
• Mostly lay eggs, but a few do bear living young (largely only Australian species)
• Bite with a downward strike, and often chew prey to envenomate
• Bite relatively painless, but can kill quickly through paralysis of heart and lung muscles
• Cobra relatives
• Talk about fang structure
• General characteristics
• Viperids (Vipers)
• Over 200 related species
• Long, hollow fangs that are folded back to the roof of the mouth until striking
• Some species, known as pit vipers, have a temperature-sensing organ that allows them to hunt warm-blooded prey even when they cannot see
• Large venom glands lead to a more triangular or pear-shaped head 
• Fang structure and general characteristics

Segment 2: The Chemistry Behind Snake Venoms

Have a natural transition into an example… no need to say “segment 2”

Provide detailed explanations of the chemistry that is related to your topic.

Remember that you must have a minimum of 2 topics from ap chem that you can explain here as related to your episode

• Viperid and elapid venom mechanism of action
• Viperid - hemolytic and necrotic
• How and why
• Specific example - Saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus)
• Affects blood circulation, causing severe tissue and organ damage.
• Certain proteins prevent blood coagulation by preferentially binding to prothrombin, cleaving it into meizothrombin, which cannot be used along the typical clotting pathway
• Leads to catastrophic internal bleeding and hemmorhage, which in turn leads to shock when too much blood has left the circulatory system
• Reversed with antivenom
• Elapid - typically neurotoxic
• How and why
• Discuss neurochemistry of neurotoxins, why toxin binds to receptors
• Go in detail with one example - Inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus)
• LD50 of 0.025 mg/kg in mice, 0.01 mg/kg in bovine serum
• Venom primarily kills through neurotoxins
• Presynaptic - paradoxin
• Blocks release of acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter responsible for muscle contraction
• Depolarizes the neuron, preventing the firing of action potentials
• One of the most potent, if not most potent, presynaptic neurotoxins known to man, but still largely unknown in function
• Believed to fuse ACh-containing vesicles to the presynaptic membrane, and prevent recycling of already-used vesicles
• Affects the permeability of the phospholipid membrane through altering structure as it binds to the surface.
• Postsynaptic - oxylepitoxin 1, alpha oxytoxin 1, alpha-scutoxin 1
• Bind to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in muscles antagonistically, causing inhibition of the receptor
• Prevent the reception of a signal to move
• Two types of receptors, nicotinic and muscarinic
• Nicotinic in central nervous system, muscarinic in peripheral nervous system and associated with autonomous nervous system and organs
• Only treatment is to use a mechanical ventilator and administer carbachol

Segment 3: Personal Connections

• I have always been interested in snakes, especially

Thank you for listening to this episode of Chemistry Connections. For more student-ran podcasts and digital content, make sure that you visit www.hvspn.com. 

Sources:

List your sources here. Make sure they are linked. Wikipedia cannot count for more than 50% of your sources.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0028390807000056 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17313963/

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "elapid". Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Jun. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/animal/elapid . Accessed 24 May 2023. 

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "viper". Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Apr. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/animal/viper-snake . Accessed 24 May 2023.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echis_carinatus#Venom 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16879898/ 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC310718/#:~:text=These%20potent%20toxins%20bind%20specifically,blocking%20the%20excitation%20of%20muscles. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/866568/ 

Music Credits

Warm Nights by @LakeyInspired 

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