Walden E. Bjørn-Yoshimoto

Abstract Venomous animals have evolved diverse molecular mechanisms to incapacitate prey and defend against predators. Most venom components disrupt nervous, locomotor, and cardiovascular systems or cause tissue damage. The discovery that certain fish-hunting cone snails use weaponized insulins to induce hypoglycemic shock in prey highlights a unique example of toxins targeting glucose homeostasis.

Highlights The serotonergic signaling system is targeted in a wide range of diseases, but the existing drugs have detrimental adverse effects caused by unselective binding to ‘off-target’ receptors. Recent ligand-receptor structures open for mapping of molecular determinants of binding selectivity and explanation of effects observed from a wealth of mutagenesis and structure-activity relationship data.