While journalists and medical researchers have long known that acute pancreatitis is a disease associated with alcoholism, an international team of researchers is exploring how toxins in the venom of an aggressive species of Brazilian scorpion regularly bring on symptoms of this same disease in millions of human victims in Central and South America. The link between pancreatitis and scorpions is being studied with the help of the Internet computer network, says Dr Paul Fletcher, a microbiologist at the East Carolina University School of Medicine in Greenville, North Carolina. Internet consists of some 5,700 networks linking everything from mainframes to desktop computers, and between 5m to 10m use the system. In the mid-1970s, Fletcher initiated an international study with researchers including the Instituto Butantan of Sao Paulo, Brazil and the Institute of Biotechnology of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico to identify and analyse the chemical composition of venom milked from the scorpion Tityus Serrulatus. The researchers have since isolated protein toxins found in venom, and have been performing tests using medical instruments coupled with – wouldn’t you know it – PS/2s and RS/6000s. The Brazilian scorpion is an arachnid, related to spiders, ticks and mites, which perambulate on four pairs of legs. The two-inch scorpions are packed with a neuro-toxic venom so potent it can swiftly disable or kill a real or perceived predator many times its size within hours. In addition to excruciating pain, the venom of the Brazilian scorpion can induce convulsions, hyperexcitability, slurred speech, paralysis of the limbs, and finally, depending upon the dosage of toxins coursing through a victim’s bloodstream, heart and respiratory failure resulting in death. Mortality from scorpion stings represents a significant but under-reported health problem in Latin America, according to Fletcher. So how do the researchers get a supply of scorpions to milk for venom? Apart from an informal network of scorpion hunters, Fletcher has periodically ventured into the mountains of Brazil to collect poisonous scorpions with his colleagues, and for the fashion conscious reader, usual dress includes mosquito netting and thick boots that help protect against poisonous snake bites. In addition to studying the links between scorpion venom and pancreatitis, Fletcher and his colleagues are working with a variety of living on-line databases that can be accessed by Internet. These include protein and nucleic acid structure databases. Other databases contemplated for the future include a survey of the venomous scorpions of Brazil and their geographical occurrence, and a list of known toxins along with medical antidotes.
