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Journal Articles Toxicon Year : 2014

Editorial : Special Issue on "freshwater and marine toxins".

Abstract

and the United States of America, attended this meeting organized by the French Society of Toxinology (SFET, www.sfet.asso.fr). Should a reminder be appropriate, please note that the SFET missions aim at (i) promoting research in all domains concerning the venoms and toxins from animal, vegetal or microbial origins, i.e. the chemical, immunological, environmental, pharmacological, physiological domains, along with mode of action, structure-function relationships, drug-design and applicability questionings; (ii) favouring the meeting of colleagues in the field, communication to other scientists, education and training at all levels, and dissemination to more general audiences; (iii) improving fundamental research on toxinology and enhance its relevance and applications. We warmly thank all those who made this meeting achievable, and we particularly acknowledge the cogent contribution of Professor Alan Harvey, Editor-in-chief of Toxicon, who made the publication of the RT21 proceedings possible as a Special Issue focused on Freshwater and Marine toxins. This Special Issue gathers 16 original peer-reviewed articles and reviews, and 48 abstracts, all reflecting those works and data that were presented during the SFET meeting. For decades, scientists have been working on terrestrial toxins. The main reason is that the accessibility to the producers-venomous animals, pathogenic bacteria or poisonous plants-and the related human health issues in endemic areas have motivated pharmacologists and physiologists to study the mode of action of natural toxic molecules found just outside of laboratories. Moreover, natural products have long been used in traditional medicine as drugs to treat a variety of human diseases. A well-known example is morphine, which keeps being the most widely used molecule to alleviate pain. However, the exploration of shorelines and deep oceans with modern equipment, the recreational use of seas and the emergence of eutrophication of freshwaters (a process where water bodies receive excess nutrients that stimulate excessive phytoplankton and bacteria growth) in occidental and developing countries have contributed to the molecular identification of toxic cocktails from aquatic producers. The human colonization of coastal waters and the growing activity along the rivers have increased the probability of human interactions with toxin producers. Nowadays, sea snakes, cone snails, cnidarians, toxic microalgae, parasitic bacteria are common features of the global concern in modern toxicology. Moreover, should one take into account the recent approval of marine toxins as chemical templates to design new therapeutic agents directed toward major human pathologies-i.e. pain and cancer (Prialt and Yondelis, respectively)-one would be convinced that pharmacological active molecules found underwater may represent an endless pipeline for the next generation of natural drugs.
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hal-01165542 , version 1 (21-05-2020)

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Evelyne Benoit, César Mattei, Julien Barbier, P. Marchot, Jordi Molgó, et al.. Editorial : Special Issue on "freshwater and marine toxins".. Toxicon, 2014, 91, pp.1-4. ⟨10.1016/j.toxicon.2014.11.217⟩. ⟨hal-01165542⟩
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