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

描述（由申请人提供）：德克萨斯农工大学金斯维尔分校的毒蛇资源中心（VRC）， P40竞争性更新，建议继续执行最初拨款申请的目标。资源将扩大，蛇毒、蛇毒组分、血液和细胞将提供给生物医学研究界。该提案的研究部分将侧重于通过描述生物医学研究中发现的毒液中的重要分子来改进产品。由于大学的支持和NIH的资助，自然毒素研究中心（NTRC）内的VRC开发了一个独特的设施，配备了最先进的仪器。世界上有300种不同种类的毒蛇，毒液是由数千种分子组成的复杂混合物。许多毒蛇利用它们的毒液通过干扰凝血级联来捕获猎物，从而导致动物失血过多而死。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分解素，它是纤维蛋白原的竞争性抑制剂，干扰血小板功能。崩解素阻断细胞与细胞、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细胞内外活动。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。基于这一假设，具体目标是继续：(1)增加VRC用于生物医学用途的毒蛇数量；(2)利用高效液相色谱法和各种检测方法对蛇毒进行表征，确定蛇毒分子的医学应用；(3)完善互联网数据库，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毒液蛋白质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适当饲养的蛇，高质量的毒液和生物医学研究的特征部分。这些蛇、它们的毒液和毒液的部分成分被放在NTRC的互联网数据库中，可以查询。毒液可以在以后从同一条蛇订购，因为所有的蛇都有坑标签。对VRC的评估将基于使用毒液的调查人员数量、出版物和通过互联网数据库传播的信息。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，比如中风、心脏病、癌症和其他医疗问题。

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.