Editorial: Experimental and computational aspects of bioactive proteins from animal venoms: an insight into pharmacological properties and drug discovery

of omics (e.g. genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics) in venom research, termed venomics, seeks to describe the diversity and complexity of venoms, providing the foundation for toxin characterisation, and antivenom development (Modahl et al., 2020;Tan, 2022). These approaches characterise the pharmacological properties of toxins through the convergence of experimental and computational methods. Indispensable computational studies of toxins encompass molecular modelling, docking and simulations of molecular dynamics delineate structure-function relationships, especially interactions with cellular targets that drive pharmacological effects (Ojeda et al., 2017).Our research topic collected 9 articles of new findings and perspectives to unravel the pharmacological and drug discovery potentials of venoms from spiders, snakes and bees.Understanding the mechanistic actions of toxins on molecular targets is the first step towards the development of novel therapeutics. Li et al expressed a novel toxin, LCTX-F2, identified from spider Lycosa singoriensis venom, and performed a series of characterisation experiments. LCTX-F2 is a 7.5 kDa peptide with 65 amino acids and belongs to the toxin 35 superfamily in spider venoms. Notably, this toxin possesses procoagulant activity with significant reduction in clotting times through interaction with coagulation factors FXIIa, Fxa, kallikrein, and thrombin. This study demonstrated a dose-dependent decrease in bleeding time in experimental mouse models with no cytotoxic or haemolytic activities.These findings suggest the potential of LCTX-F2 as a future procoagulant drug.Badari, et al discovered a cysteine-rich secreted protein (CRISP) isoform they have named patagonin in the venom of a snake, Philodryas patagoniensis, by reverse-phase HPLC bioassay-guided fractionation. Patagonin exhibited significant antimicrobial effects against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Penicillium expansum. Patagonin is also non-cytotoxic and non-haemolytic, highlighting snake venoms as promising sources of novel antimicrobial molecules.Chan et al discovered ZK002, a 30 kDa protein from Deinagkistrodon acutus venom with anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory effects. This protein targets VEGF signalling pathways and angiogenic-related proteins. It also suppresses pro-inflammatory cytokines which demonstrates the potential of ZK002 as dual-functional therapeutic agents for angiogenesis and inflammation-related diseases.The scorpion venom toxin has also been found to exhibit anticancer properties. In a study by Mlayah-Bellalouna et al, P01 toxin from Androctonus australis possesses selective anticancer effects against glioblastoma cells, by targeting SK2 channels. Their findings proposed the potential therapeutic development of P01 for glioblastoma.Shi et al reviewed the pharmacological potentials of bee venoms. This review covers a comprehensive appraisal of the pharmacological effects of bee venoms and their principal components responsible for their anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-infective, analgesic and neuroprotective effects. The authors applied bioinformatic analyses, KEGG pathway analyses, and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analyses to predict mechanistic actions and signalling pathways which represent important molecular pharmacology of bee venoms. The review also provides a thorough overview of potential therapeutic applications of bee venoms through network pharmacology.In addition to characterising toxin activities, it is of great importance to understand the structure-function relationship of toxins and their molecular targets. Dongol et al investigated structure-function relationships of a spider venom toxin, Ssp1a, a selective sodium channel (Nav) subtype antagonist. They adopted molecular docking to design two promising Ssp1a analogues, S7R-E18K-rSsp1a and N14D-P27R-rSsp1, with enhanced potency and selectivity for NaV subtypes.From here, they successfully developed S7R-E18K-rSsp1a and N14D-P27R-rSsp1, two promising analogues with improved efficacy and selectivity towards NaV subtypes, NaV1.3 and NaV1.2/1.7, respectively. These findings emphasise how computational approaches could be applied in rational drug design from toxins to achieve therapeutic outcomes for medical conditions associated with sodium channel subtypes.Although we observe great therapeutic potentials in certain animal venom toxins, we also appreciate that it is the diversity of the animal venom toxins which can make the treatment of envenoming challenging. One of these challenges is the immunogenicity of venom toxins, which requires study to