Venoms from marine and terrestrial animals (cone snails, scorpions, spiders, snakes, centipedes, cnidarian, etc.) can be seen as an untapped cocktail of biologically-active compounds, being increasingly recognized as new emerging source of peptide-based therapeutics. Venomous animals are considered to be specialized predators that have evolved the most sophisticated peptide chemistry and neuropharmacology for their own biological purposes by producing venoms that contains a structural and functional diversity of neurotoxins. These neurotoxins have shown to be highly selective ligands for a wide range of ion channels and receptors. Therefore, they represent interesting lead compounds for the development of, for example, analgesics, anti-cancer drugs, drugs for neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, etc. This Special Issue of Toxins aims to provide a comprehensive look at toxins and toxin inspired leads and will focus on the mechanism of action, structure-function and evolution of pharmacological interesting venom components, including but not limited to, recent developments relating to the emergence of venoms as an underutilized source of highly evolved bioactive peptides with clinical potential. |