Gunas Valery, Maievskyi Oleksandr, Raksha Nataliia, Vovk Tetiana, Savchuk Oleksiy, Shchypanskyi Serhii, Gunas Igor
Department of Forensic Medicine and Law, National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Pyrohova Street 56, Vinnytsya, Ukraine.
Department of Clinical Medicine, Educational and Scientific Center "Institute of Biology and Medicine" of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Hlushkova Avenue 2, Kyiv, Ukraine.
J Toxicol. 2023 Feb 20;2023:5262729. doi: 10.1155/2023/5262729. eCollection 2023.
Scorpion stings may be life-threatening since their venoms are comprised of a wide range of toxins and other bioactive molecules, such as enzymes. At the same time, scorpion envenomation may increase matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) levels, which enhance proteolytic tissue destruction by venom. However, investigations on the impact of many scorpions' venoms, such as those of , on tissue proteolytic activity and MMP levels have not yet been conducted.
The present study aimed to examine the total proteolysis levels in various organs after envenomation and evaluate the metalloproteases and serine proteases' contributions to the total proteolytic activity. Changes in MMPs and TIMP-1 levels were tested as well. Envenomation led to a significant increase in proteolytic activity levels in all assessed organs, mostly in the heart (by 3.34 times) and lungs (by 2.25 times).
Since EDTA presence showed a noticeable decrease in total proteolytic activity level, metalloproteases appeared to play a prominent role in total proteolytic activity. At the same time, MMPs and TIMP-1 levels were increased in all assessed organs, suggesting that envenomation causes systemic envenomation, which may induce multiple organ abnormalities, mostly because of the uncontrolled metalloprotease activity.
蝎子蜇伤可能危及生命，因为其毒液由多种毒素和其他生物活性分子（如酶）组成。同时，蝎子蜇伤可能会增加基质金属蛋白酶（MMPs）的水平，这会增强毒液对组织的蛋白水解破坏作用。然而，尚未对许多蝎子毒液（如 的毒液）对组织蛋白水解活性和MMP水平的影响进行研究。
本研究旨在检测 蜇伤后各器官的总蛋白水解水平，并评估金属蛋白酶和丝氨酸蛋白酶对总蛋白水解活性的贡献。同时还检测了MMPs和TIMP-1水平的变化。蜇伤导致所有评估器官的蛋白水解活性水平显著升高，主要是心脏（升高3.34倍）和肺（升高2.25倍）。
由于EDTA的存在使总蛋白水解活性水平显著降低，金属蛋白酶似乎在总蛋白水解活性中起主要作用。同时，所有评估器官中的MMPs和TIMP-1水平均升高，这表明 蜇伤会导致全身中毒，可能会引发多个器官异常，主要是由于金属蛋白酶活性失控。
