They also mention the successful use of protein adducts as biomar

They also mention the successful use of protein adducts as biomarkers in the case of sulphur mustard, acrylamide, ethylene oxide, dichlorvos and acrylonitrile. Another example of the utility of biological monitoring was reported by Jones and

McCallum (2011). This involved a workplace ‘incident’ in which tunnelling workers were exposed to levels of benzene that exceeded exposure limits. Biological monitoring (urinary S-phenylmercapturic acid levels) revealed BTK inhibitors high internal exposures to benzene despite the use of personal protection equipment Investigation showed this was due a combination of environmental and human factors. Improvements in protective equipment, work practices and worker behaviour led to significant reductions in exposure. Selleckchem CHIR 99021 For first responders to major incidents with no ‘normal’ exposure to the substance

and relying on personal protective equipment for control of exposure the more appropriate guidance values may be those derived from background/population levels. If the equipment is working and being used correctly it might be expected that systemic exposure will be low. However, in these cases and also for those potentially exposed in the wider population, care should be taken interpreting the results. Although population studies are very helpful in assessing the overall exposure of the population they are more difficult to interpret for the individual. Samples are usually collected at times

that are not defined in relation to exposure (extent or frequency) and may show considerable intra-individual variation (Aylward et al., 2014). Since biological monitoring guidance values for both environmental and for occupational exposures have their limitations in the aftermath of a chemical incident, there is a need for biological guidance values specific for use in such incidents. Biological guidance values help assess systemic exposure but are related to external exposure dose metrics. Acute Exposure Reference Values Suplatast tosilate (AERVs) such as AEGLs (EPA, 2012) or Emergency Response Planning guidance Levels (ERPGs AIHA, 2013) are external exposure guidance values specifically derived for chemical incidents (Bos et al., 2013). This guidance can be used in support of the public health management of chemical incidents and should enable comparison of the public health impacts of the chemical exposure and of the possible emergency response measures such as shelter-in-place or evacuation. Such guidance values have at least three tiers (representing action levels) showing the following characteristics: 1. A threshold for discomfort or other minor, rapidly reversible health effects. The eldest programs for derivation of AERVs are the Emergency Response Planning Guidelines (ERPGs) and the Acute Exposure Guideline Levels (AEGLs), both initiated in the US.

, 2010 and Wang et al , 2012, we develop a new approach taking in

, 2010 and Wang et al., 2012, we develop a new approach taking into account the physical theory of directional and frequency decomposition of swell waves (e.g. Holthuijsen, 2007). The new model is then applied to 5 sets of projections of the atmosphere by four different RCMs (forced by one or two GCMs; see Table 1), to explore the inter-model variability and to project future changes in wave climate, as done by Casas-Prat and Sierra (2013) with dynamical downscaling. The study area is situated in the NW

Mediterranean Selleckchem GSK3 inhibitor Sea, focusing on the Catalan coast (highlighted in red in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). The new method is therefore adapted to the features of this zone, providing the area with a range of wave projections that are of sufficiently high spatial and temporal resolutions for coastal impact assessments in the context of climate change. In general, we aim to develop a computationally inexpensive method of general applicability. Thus, our method can easily be adapted for use in other regions. The remainder of this paper is structured Volasertib nmr as follows. Section 2 describes the main features of the atmospheric and wave climate of the study area, and Section 3, the datasets used to calibrate and validate the statistical model and to project the future wave climate

conditions in this area. Section 4 describes how the statistical method is developed and applied to the study area. Along with some discussion, Section 5 presents the results of model evaluation, and future wave projections are discussed in Section 6. Finally, Section 7 summarizes the main conclusions of this study, along with some discussion. Although Sclareol we focus on the wave climate along the Catalan coast, in order to account for swell waves (see Section 2.2), a larger domain (than merely the Catalan sea area) is considered as the “study area”, which is illustrated with a black square in Fig. 1 and shown enlarged

in Fig. 2. In determining the boundaries of this study area, we consider: (1) the maximum fetch affecting the Catalan coast and (2) the shadow effects produced by the Balearic islands (more details in Section 2.2). We will produce therefore wave climate projections for the whole study area (not only for the Catalan coast). However, the results are less reliable/accurate for grid points near the domain boundaries, especially those that are close to the Gibraltar strait, since no exchange with the Atlantic Ocean is considered in the datasets used. Having a better knowledge of the main aspects of atmospheric and (corresponding) wave climate is important to better design the statistical model, and to properly interpret the modeling results. Therefore, a review of those aspects has been undertaken and is presented in the subsections below. Several reviews and studies have been carried out in the recent years in order to better describe the characteristics of the complex Mediterranean climate (e.g. Bolle, 2003, Campins et al., 2011, Lionello et al.

Studies involving both outdoor and computer simulated approaches

Studies involving both outdoor and computer simulated approaches have shown that natural environments in general have a number of psychological benefits compared to urban settings. They have been shown to improve mood

(Barton and Pretty, 2010, Hartig et al., 2003, van den Berg et al., 2003 and Ulrich, 1984), increase the ability to perform cognitive tasks (Berman et al., 2008, Berto, 2005, Hartig et al., RG7422 purchase 2003, Laumann et al., 2003 and van den Berg et al., 2003) and speed up recovery after surgery (e.g. Ulrich, 1984). More specifically, aquatic or “blue” environments were preferred over green environments such as forests (Felsten, 2009 and Laumann et al., 2001) and were associated with more positive mood and relaxation (White et al., 2010 and White et al., 2013). Recent qualitative research

has also explored how families use beach visits in general for improving Buparlisib in vivo psychological and physical health (Ashbullby et al., 2013). However, there is little research on the benefits of specific environments, such as rocky shores, rather than of aquatic or natural environments in general. As well as looking at nature in a very general manner, the psychological approach has tended to overlook the effect of different activities. Many studies in this line of research simply show natural scenes passively on a computer (e.g. Berto, 2005, Felsten, 2009, Laumann et al., 2001, Laumann et al., 2003, Staats et al., 2003 and van den Berg et al., 2003) or focus on walking (e.g. Berman et al., 2008; [Study 1]; Hartig et al., 2003). The coastal environment has numerous recreational uses, which can include activities from rock pooling (exploring the pools

of water and crevices) to playing or sunbathing. Some research has considered the intensity of a particular activity, such as cycling when viewing a video of a natural scene (Barton and Pretty, 2010); yet there appears to be no research on the psychological effects of different activities in natural settings. Consequently, more research is necessary to examine the psychological wellbeing benefits1 of different activities in natural environments. In addition to the wellbeing benefits of visiting the environment, there may MRIP also be benefits on visitors’ marine awareness. Numerous studies have examined the impact of direct and indirect natural experiences using school groups and excursions (Zeppel and Muloin, 2007). For example, Cummins and Snively (2000) examined an educational programme on grade 4 pupils (age 9–10), which involved a classroom session and a field trip to sandy and rocky shores. Children’s knowledge and attitudes towards the ocean significantly increased as a consequence of this field trip. Changes in awareness have also been shown in adults, for example after visits to aquariums, marine awareness was found to increase (Adelman et al., 2000, Falk and Adelman, 2003 and Wyles et al., 2013).

After the incubation, the cells were centrifuged at 10,000g for 3

After the incubation, the cells were centrifuged at 10,000g for 30 min at 4 °C, and the supernatant was collected and filtered through a 0.2 μm Millipore membrane. The absorbance was determined in a spectrophotometer DU-800 (Beckman Nutlin3a Coulter, Fullerton, CA, USA) by the difference in absorbance at wavelengths 414 and 600 nm. The results are expressed in nmol cytochrome c released/106 cells using a molar extinction coefficient (ɛ) of 100 mM−1 cm−1. The assessment of caspase 3 activity was performed using a Caspase 3 assay kit (Sigma–Aldrich). The hepatocytes

were collected and centrifuged at 600g for 5 min and suspended in 1 mL of phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Further centrifugation was performed, and the precipitate was incubated for 15 min at 4 °C

with 200 μL of lysis buffer for the release of caspase 3, and 300 μL of PBS was then STA-9090 added. The lysed cell suspension was centrifuged at 14,000g for 15 min at 4 °C, and the supernatant was collected. Aliquots of 50 μL of supernatant were used to assess the activity of caspase 3 according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Fluorescence was determined using the fluorescence spectrophotometer RF-5301 PC (Shimadzu, Tokyo, Japan) at wavelengths of 360 and 460 nm for excitation and emission, respectively. The results are expressed as pmol of AMC/min/mL. Samples of cells (200 μL) were collected and centrifuged at 50g for 5 min, and the precipitate was suspended in Krebs/Henseleit medium, pH 7.4, and incubated with Hoechst 33342 (8 μg/mL) and Propidium Iodide (5 μM) dyes for 15 min at room temperature in the dark. After incubation, the samples were

centrifuged very twice at 50g for 5 min to remove excess dye. After the washes, the hepatocytes were suspended in 50 μL of Krebs/Henseleit medium, pH 7.4. The cells were analyzed with a fluorescence microscope (DM 2500 type, Leica, Rueil-Malmaison, France), and the percentage of necrotic cells was quantitated using the Qwin 3.0 software. Data are expressed as the mean ± standard error of the mean (S.E.M.). The statistical significance of the differences between control and the experimental groups was evaluated using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Dunnett’s test, and differences between the experimental groups at the same time points was evaluated using unpaired t test with Welch´s correction. Values of P < 0.05 were considered to be significant. All statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism software, version 4.0 for Windows (GraphPad Software, San Diego, CA, USA). Fig. 1 shows the inhibitory effect of ABA on the glutamate-plus-malate-supported and succinate-supported state 3 (ADP-stimulated) respiration of mitochondria in digitonin-permeabilized hepatocytes.

2) system (Meyer et al , 2003) Annotation and data mining were d

2) system (Meyer et al., 2003). Annotation and data mining were done with the tool JCoast, version 1.7 (Richter et al., 2008) seeking for each coding region observations from similarity searches against several sequence databases (NCBI-nr, Swiss-Prot, Kegg-Genes, genomesDB) (Richter et al., 2008) and to the protein Selleck Buparlisib family database InterPro (Mulder et al., 2005). Predicted protein coding sequences were automatically annotated by the software tool MicHanThi (Quast, 2006). Briefly, the MicHanThi software interferes gene functions based on similarity searches against the NCBI-nr (including Swiss-Prot) and InterPro databases using fuzzy logic. Particular

interesting genes, like sulfatases, were manually evaluated. The gene-content comparison revealed a large number of shared orthologous genes in the genus. The core genome of the R. baltica strains SH1T, SH28, SWK14 and WH47 included 4232 genes. Between individual genomes the number of common genes ranged from 4549 (SH1/WH47) to 4921 genes (SH28/SWK14). Each genome provides over 6000 predicted proteins, thus about 25 to 30% of the genes are strain-specific. In general, 70–75% of all genes appeared to be conserved in at least one of the other R. baltica genomes. The exceptionally high number of sulfatase genes found in the AZD4547 in vitro three planctomycetal genomes is an outstanding feature of

these organisms ( Table 1) ( Wegner et al., 2013). These Whole Genome Shotgun projects have been deposited in INSDC (DDBJ/EBI-ENA/GenBank) under the accession numbers AFAR00000000 (WH47), AMCW00000000 (SH28) and AMWG00000000 (SWK14). The sequence associated contextual (meta)data are MIGS (Yilmaz et al., 2011) compliant. This study was supported by the German Federal Ministry

of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the Microbial Interactions in Marine Systems (MIMAS) project (Grant No. 03F0480A). “
“Rhodopirellula is a genus of marine bacteria belonging to the ubiquitous phylum Planctomycetes. Members of the Planctomycetes are abundant in particulate fractions of marine ecosystems and considered as important participants in the global carbon and nitrogen cycles. Urocanase They convert substantial amounts of organic material, such as “marine snow” (aggregates of zooplankton, phytoplankton and protists), into carbon dioxide. Their importance in marine systems was recently discovered and documented in several publications ( Glöckner et al., 2003, Winkelmann and Harder, 2009 and Winkelmann et al., 2010). A collection of 70 Rhodopirellula strains obtained from different European seas revealed 13 distinct operational taxonomic units (OTUs). These were defined by taxonomic studies with a combination of 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequence comparisons, DNA–DNA–hybridization (DDH) and a novel multi-locus sequence analysis (MLSA) approach that employed primers in putatively conserved regions of nine housekeeping genes ( Winkelmann et al., 2010).

At the concentrations tested (5–25 μM), ABA inhibited state-3 res

At the concentrations tested (5–25 μM), ABA inhibited state-3 respiration of mitochondria in a concentration-dependent manner. This effect was observed when mitochondria were energized with either glutamate plus malate, the respiratory chain site I substrates (Fig. 2A), or succinate, a respiratory chain site II substrate (Fig. 2B). A maximum effect was observed at a concentration of 15 μM. ABA also inhibited

state-3 respiration of TMPD plus ascorbate-energized mitochondria in a concentration-dependent manner (data not shown). The compound did not stimulate state-4 respiration, indicating that it does not act as an uncoupler (data not shown). Subsequent experiments with carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone (CCCP)-stimulated mitochondrial respiration were performed to test APO866 chemical structure the inhibitor effect of the compound on the respiratory chain or on ATP synthase. ABA did not inhibit CCCP-uncoupled respiration, indicating that only oxidative phosphorylation was inhibited (Fig. 3). The same behavior was observed with oligomycin (ATPase inhibitor) and carboxyatractyloside

(ANT inhibitor). Figure 4 shows the effect of ABA on the Δψ of glutamate + malate-energized rat liver mitochondria. ABA (25 μM) did not dissipate Δψ. The same behavior was observed for oligomycin and carboxyatractyloside. At the end of the experiment, 1 μM CCCP (uncoupler) or 2.5 μM rotenone (complex I inhibitor) was added as a positive control, and the mitochondrial membrane electrical potential dissipated. The effect of ABA on http://www.selleckchem.com/products/Vorinostat-saha.html mitochondrial ATP levels was evaluated using the respiratory assay conditions 15 min after mitochondria were incubated with the compound (Fig. 5). In agreement with the mitochondrial respiration results, ABA caused a significant concentration-dependent

decrease in mitochondrial ATP levels, reaching a maximum effect at 15 μM. The effects of Immune system ABA on FoF1-ATPase activity were measured in intact-uncoupled mitochondria in the presence of CCCP, and in freeze–thawing-disrupted mitochondria, as shown in Fig. 6A and B, respectively. The ATPase activity of uncoupled mitochondria was increased in a concentration-dependent manner by ABA (Fig. 6A). In disrupted mitochondria, the effects were less dramatic and similar across all concentrations tested (Fig. 6B). The effect of ABA on NADH and succinate dehydrogenase activity was measured in freeze–thawing-disrupted mitochondria. As expected, ABA at concentrations from 5 to 25 μM did not cause significant changes in enzyme activity (data not shown). The purpose of this assay was to determine whether ABA inhibits ADP-induced depolarization of Δψ by interference with ANT. Carboxyatractyloside was used as a positive control for direct ANT inhibition. ABA caused significant, concentration-dependent inhibition of ADP-stimulated depolarization of Δψ (Fig. 7).

The vasorelaxant activity of the crude venom was measured in aort

The vasorelaxant activity of the crude venom was measured in aortic rings with functional endothelium pre-contracted to 50% of the maximal contraction induced by phenylephrine (0.1 μM). Lasiodora venom was added in increasing cumulative concentrations (0.06-64 μg/ml) in order to perform a concentration-response curve. After that, to verify the participation of endothelium-derived HKI272 products, a single concentration (8 μg/ml) close to the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of the venom was added to rings pre-contracted with phenylephrine (0.1 μM), containing or not functional endothelium, in the presence or absence of pharmacological inhibitors. The pharmacological inhibitors

used were indomethacin (10 μM) or L-NAME (NG nitro-l-arginine-methyl-ester; 300 μM), which were added to the bath 30 min prior to the addition of phenylephrine. Western blot was performed as previously described by Capettini et al. (2011), with some modifications. Rat aortic rings were excised and cut into rings as described above TSA HDAC (Section 2.4). The aortic rings were then transferred to a 24-well culture plate. Each well contained a pool of aortic rings from four rats in 1 ml of Krebs-Henseleit solution. Before the experiments,

the plate was maintained at 37 °C in a 5% CO2 humidified air incubator for 30 min; the medium was changed every 15 min. Subsequently, the aortic rings were incubated with 16 μg/ml Lasiodora sp. venom or 0.1 μM acetylcholine (positive control) during different time intervals: 0, 5, 15 and 30 min. After incubation, the vessels were immediately transferred to 1.5 ml microtubes and frozen in liquid nitrogen. After that, frozen aortas were suspended in lysis buffer (150 mM NaCl; 50 mM Tris; 5 mM EDTA·2Na; 1 mM MgCl2;

pH8; 1% v/v Nonidet P-40; 0.3% v/v Triton X-100; 0.5% sodium dodecyl sulfate; 2 mM AEBSF; 1 mM EDTA; 130 μM bestatin; 14 μM E64; FER 1 μM leupeptin; 0.3 μM aprotinin) and homogenized using a turrax tissue homogenizer (Marconi, Piracicaba, Brazil). Samples were kept at −80 °C until Western blot analysis. Protein concentration was measured as described by Lowry et al. (1951). Proteins (60 μg) were separated on 4%-10% polyacrylamide gel and transferred to polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane by semidry electroblotting. Membranes were blocked with 2.5% (w/v) nonfat dry milk in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) with 0.1% Tween 20 and probed overnight at 4 °C with specific primary antibodies: goat polyclonal anti-phospho-eNOS-Ser1177 (1:1000; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA, USA), and rabbit polyclonal anti-eNOS (1:1000; Sigma-Aldrich). Membranes were incubated with secondary horseradish peroxidase conjugated antibodies (1:2000 anti-goat IgG-HRP and anti-rabbit IgG-HRP, Santa Cruz Biotechnology) for 2 h at room temperature.

As conclusões são muito interessantes e confirmam

As conclusões são muito interessantes e confirmam Dinaciclib cell line de forma clara uma vantagem em termos económicos (e provavelmente não só) do tenofovir em relação ao entecavir. É um estudo inovador já que é o primeiro estudo sobre o assunto a ser realizado em Portugal, confirmando resultados já obtidos noutros países2 and 3. As mais recentes Guidelines para o tratamento da hepatite B crónica., quer as Europeias quer as Americanas, consideram que ambos os fármacos (tenofovir e entecavir) são de 1alinha para o tratamento da hepatite B crónica,

não fazendo distinção entre nenhum dos dois 4 and 5. Não havendo estudos comparativos entre os dois fármacos, nem sendo previsível que estes venham a acontecer, a escolha entre os dois na prática clínica muitas vezes poderá ocorrer por razões pessoais (conhecimento e experiência

maior do clínico com um dos fármacos), institucionais (protocolos de cada Hospital) ou até mesmo pontuais. De facto, comparando os resultados clínicos em termos de eficácia a longo prazo dos dois fármacos é difícil optar-se de forma objectiva por um dos dois. Poder-se-á dizer que a possibilidade de nefrotoxicidade do tenofovir poderá levar alguns clínicos a optar pelo entecavir, contudo, a nefrotoxicidade do tenofovir em doentes com hepatite B e sem HIV é de relevância clínica questionável 1. Por estas razões, a vertente económica da utilização de ambos os fármacos, isto é, uma análise de custo-utilidade, torna-se de grande relevância, principalmente face ao panorama económico Nacional AZD1208 mouse e Mundial. Em Portugal estima-se que a prevalência actual da doença se situa

em cerca de 1,0 e 1,5%, com cerca de 6500 doentes a apresentarem critérios para efectuar terapêutica, apesar de apenas 1800 tetracosactide doentes se encontrarem em tratamento6. Os autores estimam que, com uma eventual alteração da terapêutica nos doentes que fazem entecavir para tenofovir, se poupariam cerca de 5,3 milhões de euros! Não parecendo lícito (mas também não totalmente ilícito…) mudar a terapêutica a um doente com resposta positiva a um fármaco apenas por razões económicas, o caso muda de figura quando se consideram os novos doentes que ainda não estão a fazer qualquer terapêutica. De facto, os autores sugerem mesmo que o tratamento inicial com tenofovir resulte numa redução em 20% (!) nas falências terapêuticas em 1alinha, com uma menor evolução a longo prazo para cirrose, carcinoma hepatocelular e transplante hepático. Esta afirmação deve ser, contudo, interpretada com algum cuidado, já que o estudo em questão não foi desenhado nem permite concluir com toda a certeza esta afirmação. Apesar desta limitação inerente ao tipo de estudo, parece difícil arranjar justificações para escolher o entecavir como primeira linha na terapêutica da Hepatite B em detrimento do tenofovir.

All direct effects were significant, as indicated by bootstrap an

All direct effects were significant, as indicated by bootstrap analysis. PH, HM, and GW were stable variety traits that were not affected by the location or year. To achieve a yield of 15 t ha− 1, a cultivar should have

a PH of 110–125 cm, a long GD with an HM of approximately 40 days, and a GW of 29–31 mg. PI3K inhibitor A decreased PN and increased GW indicate that rice breeding has shifted from selecting heavy-panicle cultivars to large-panicle cultivars. Yield potential in rice can be improved by increasing PHP, strengthening the source capacity, and enlarging the sink size. This study was jointly supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program of China OSI-906 chemical structure (2011BAD16B14, 2012BAD20B05, 2012BAD04B08, and 2013BAD20B05). We thank the staff of the Agricultural Station of Taoyuan town in Yongsheng county, Yunnan province, for the generous support. “
“The plant hormone group known as cytokinins (CKs) play a significant role not only in the regulation of proliferation and differentiation of plant cells, but also control various aspects of plant growth and development, such as leaf senescence, lateral bud growth, shoot or root branching,

photosynthesis, seed germination, transduction of nutritional signals, chloroplast formation and crop productivity [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6]. Natural CKs are mainly N6-substituted adenine derivatives that generally contain an isoprenoid or aromatic side-chain. Methane monooxygenase The fine-tuning of hormone

levels in individual cells must be under proper control by biosynthetic and metabolic enzymes [7]. It was reported that homeostasis of CK concentration in cells is regulated by the rates of biosynthesis and degradation [2]. CK synthesis in plants is catalyzed by the enzyme isopentenyltransferase via the methylerythritol phosphate and mevalonate pathways [8], [9] and [10]. Irreversible degradation of CKs and their derivatives is catalyzed by CKXs, which are encoded in plants by a small gene family [11]. The CKX enzyme degrades CKs by cleaving the N6-substituted side chain to produce adenine and unsaturated aldehyde 3-methyl-2-butenal [12] and [13]. CKX enzyme is a flavoenzyme, containing flavin adenosine dinucleotide (FAD) bound domain, and catalyzes degradation of CKs with molecular oxygen as the oxidant or with other electron acceptors in a dehydrogenase reaction  [14] and [15]. The CKX enzyme was reported to be an important regulatory factor regulating local CK contents and to contribute to the control of CK-dependent processes [16]. CKX activity was first discovered in crude extracts from tobacco plants [17].

In the present study, using MALDI-TOF MS, 174 molecular masses we

In the present study, using MALDI-TOF MS, 174 molecular masses were observed in Ts-MG venom, among them, a total of 142 (around 82%) was also detected previously ( Pimenta et al., 2001). In a lesser extent, from 171 components observed in Ts-DF venom, 122 (71%) correspond to components detected by Pimenta et al. (2001). As it was presented in the

earlier fingerprinting studies mentioned above and reviewed elsewhere (Rodríguez de la Vega et al., 2010), in the first 25 min of chromatographic separation, which corresponds to 0–25% of acetonitrile in a 1% acetonitrile/min linear gradient elution, elute mainly low molecular mass peptides (<1500 Da), particularly those without disulfide bridges. Among them, there are fragments of larger MEK activation venom toxins and bradykinin potentiating RG7204 ic50 peptides (bpp) that strikingly account for half of the molecular masses identified within this molecular mass (MM) range in T. serrulatus venom ( Rates et al., 2008 and Verano-Braga et al., 2008). It is worth reinforcing that these studies were done with Ts-MG population. Usually, peptides in the range of molecular masses from 3500 to 4500 Da are short-chain K+ channel blockers (KTx) and they start eluting from RP-HPLC usually

after 20% acetonitrile. The molecular masses of the six KTxs previously described for T. serrulatus venom were identified in the present work in Ts-MG venom (see Table 5). Among them, three were not found in Ts-DF venom: alpha-KTX 12.1 (P59936), alpha-KTX 22.1 (P86270) and β-TsTXK (P69940). The alpha-KTX 12.1 has 4508.3 Da, a LD50 in mice of 826 μg/kg (i.v.) and inhibits high conductance calcium-activated potassium channels and, to a lesser extent, Shaker B potassium channels, moreover, inhibits Kv 1.3 ( Novello et al., 1999 and Pimenta

et al., 2003b). The alpha-KTX 22.1 is a 3956.0 Da peptide that preferentially blocks Kv1.2 and Kv1.3 channels with IC50 values of 196 ± 25 and 508 ± 67 nM, respectively ( Cologna et al., 2011). The β-TsTXK, the long-chain KTx described for T. serrulatus, has molecular mass of 6716.1 Da and selectively blocks voltage-gated noninactivating K+ channels in synaptosomes with IC50 values of 30 nM ( Legros et al., 1998 and Rogowski et al., 1994). Buthidae scorpion venom peptides with 6000 to 7500 Da Acyl CoA dehydrogenase mostly affect the activity of Na+-channels (NaScTx) and elute from RP-HPLC fractioning at approximately 33–40% acetonitrile (Batista et al., 2007). In present study, we noticed in Ts-DF and Ts-MG venom the presence of molecular masses corresponding to the seven NaScTxs previously described in T. serrulatus venom (see Table 5). It is known that the most severe cases of scorpionism occur with Buthidae scorpions and the most serious symptoms result from the action of NaScTxs (see review Rodríguez de la Vega and Possani, 2005). In fact, Kalapothakis and Chávez-Olórtegui (1997) suggested that NaScTx found in T.