Viper Resource Center (VRC) at Texas A&M University-Kingsville

位于德克萨斯州 A 的 Viper 资源中心 (VRC)

• 批准号: 7848695
• 负责人: John Carlos Perez
• 金额: $ 20.91万
• 依托单位: TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-KINGSVILLE
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-06-04 至 2010-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7848695
• 关键词: Viper; Resource; Center; VRC; Texas

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Viper Resource Center (VRC), P40 competitive renewal, at Texas A&M University-Kingsville proposes to continue the aims of the initial grant application. The resources will be expanded and snake venom, venom fractions, blood and cells will be made available to the biomedical research community. The research segment of the proposal will focus on improving the products by characterizing important molecules found in venom for biomedical research. Because of university support and NIH funding, the VRC within the Natural Toxins Research Center (NTRC) has developed a unique facility with the state-of-the-art instrumentation. There are 300 different species of venomous snakes in the world and venoms are complex mixtures of thousands of molecules. Many venomous snakes use their venoms for capturing prey by interfering with the clotting cascade, which causes the animal to bleed to death. These same molecules could have therapeutic value for preventing heart attacks and strokes. A good example of these molecules is the disintegrins, which are competitive inhibitors of fibrinogen and interfere with platelet function. Disintegrins block cell-to-cell, cell-to-matrix interactions and signal transduction, thereby affecting the internal and external cellular activities of many different cells. It is our hypothesis that snake venoms are abundant and stable sources of many molecules and once purified, characterized, and cloned, could have many potential applications in medicine. Based on this hypothesis, the specific aims are to continue: (1) increasing the number of venomous snakes at the VRC for biomedical use; (2) characterizing snake venoms by high performance liquid chromatography and various assays to determine medical applications of venom molecules; (3) improving the Internet database for better dissemination of information to investigators; and (4) using the latest techniques such as proteomics to determine the molecular weights and amino acid sequences of venom proteins. The expected results will be that investigators will have access to a wide variety of properly maintained snakes, quality venoms and characterized fractions for biomedical research. The snakes, their venoms and venom fractions are placed on the NTRC Internet database, which can be queried. Venom can be ordered at a later date from the same snake, since all snakes have pit tags. Evaluation of the VRC will be based on the number of investigators using the venoms, publications, and information disseminated through the Internet database. The significance of the proposed research is that venom molecules have important biomedical applications in many different areas such as strokes, heart attacks, cancer and other medical problems.

描述（由申请人提供）：毒蛇资源中心（VRC），P40竞争性更新，在得克萨斯A&M大学金斯维尔建议继续最初的赠款申请的目标。将扩大资源，并向生物医学研究界提供蛇毒、毒液组分、血液和细胞。该提案的研究部分将侧重于通过表征生物医学研究毒液中发现的重要分子来改进产品。由于大学的支持和NIH的资助，天然毒素研究中心（NTRC）内的VRC开发了一个独特的设施，拥有最先进的仪器。世界上有300种不同的毒蛇，毒液是数千种分子的复杂混合物。许多毒蛇用它们的毒液通过干扰凝血级联来捕获猎物，导致动物流血致死。这些相同的分子可能具有预防心脏病发作和中风的治疗价值。这些分子的一个很好的例子是去整合素，它是纤维蛋白原的竞争性抑制剂，干扰血小板功能。去整合素阻断细胞与细胞、细胞与基质的相互作用和信号转导，从而影响许多不同细胞的内部和外部细胞活性。我们的假设是，蛇毒是许多分子的丰富和稳定的来源，一旦纯化，表征和克隆，可能在医学上有许多潜在的应用。根据这一假设，具体目标是继续：（1）增加VRC中用于生物医学用途的毒蛇数量;（2）通过高效液相色谱法和各种分析确定蛇毒的特性，以确定毒液分子的医学用途;（3）改进互联网数据库，以便更好地向调查人员传播信息;（4）利用蛋白质组学等最新技术测定蛇毒蛋白的分子量和氨基酸序列。预期的结果将是，研究人员将有机会获得各种各样的妥善维护的蛇，优质毒液和生物医学研究的特征馏分。这些蛇、它们的毒液和毒液成分被放置在NTRC互联网数据库中，可以进行查询。毒液可以在以后的日期从同一条蛇订购，因为所有的蛇都有坑标签。将根据使用毒液的调查员人数、出版物和通过互联网数据库传播的信息对VRC进行评价。这项研究的意义在于，毒液分子在许多不同的领域都有重要的生物医学应用，如中风、心脏病发作、癌症和其他医学问题。