Apamin therapeutic effect on Parkinson's disease. Dopamine, which is depleted in this disease, will be released from midbrain dopaminergic neurons when these SK channels are inhibited. SK channels have also been proposed as targets for the treatment of epilepsy, emotional disorders and schizophrenia. Apamin Apamin is an 18 amino acid peptide neurotoxin found in apitoxin (bee venom). Dry bee venom consists of 2–3% of apamin. Apamin selectively blocks SK channels, a type of Ca-activated K channel expressed in the central nervous system. Toxicity is caused by only a few amino acids, these are cysteine, lysine, arginine, arginine and histidine. These amino
Snake venom the intraspecific evolution of venom. Venoms continue to evolve as specific toxins are modified to target a specific prey, and it is found that toxins vary according to diet in some species. Rapid venom evolution can also be explained by the arms race between venom targeted molecules in resistant predators, such as the opossum, and the snake venom that targets the molecules. Scientists performed experiments on the opossums and found that there were multiple trials that showed replacement to silent substitutions in the von Willebrand Factor (vWF) gene which encodes for a venom-targeted hemostatic blood protein. These substitutions are thought