Stonefish toxin could be new weapon against parasitic worms in livestock
April 12, 2025 10:28 PM Subscribe
Stonefish toxin could be new weapon against parasitic worms in livestock: a recently discovered stonefish toxin has enormous promise, according to researchers in Far North Queensland.
The compounds have been shown to kill helminths or parasitic gastrointestinal worms while leaving mammal cells unharmed, said Danica Lennox-Bulow, a PhD candidate at James Cook University.
Ms Lennox-Bulow said the toxin was different from the one stonefish were usually known for, which comes from the fish's venom glands in its spines.
"This toxin is completely different from the venom in both its composition and its function, and it's secreted from these wart-like nodules that span the animals skin," she said.
Here's the free full text article. cw: The journal Toxins is published by the MDPI stable which have the whiff of pushing out predatory journals. PredJrnls will publish anything so long as the page charges are paid have a light touch from editors and referees which ensures rapid publication. I have been an author on a tuthree MDPI pubs similar in scope to this one from Jame Cook U . . . Interesting preliminary findings from A Lot of lab work.
But don't plunge your pension pot investing in stonefish anthelmintics. Ten years ago there was some excitement about the discovery of Teixobactin a recently described antibiotic of a new class produced by a hitherto undescribed soil microorganism (provisionally named Eleftheria terrae). In 2015 I bet that Teixobactin would secure its discoverers a Nobel gong within ten years. But, for reasons, I followed up the story last week and . . . they haven't even got a production schedule sorted [there are technical hurdles] let alone FDA approval. Science is Hard.
Finally for Sunday light relief I'll share my near-death encounter with Synanceia verrucosa the same warty stonefish used in the James Cook U study.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:32 PM on April 12 [8 favorites]
But don't plunge your pension pot investing in stonefish anthelmintics. Ten years ago there was some excitement about the discovery of Teixobactin a recently described antibiotic of a new class produced by a hitherto undescribed soil microorganism (provisionally named Eleftheria terrae). In 2015 I bet that Teixobactin would secure its discoverers a Nobel gong within ten years. But, for reasons, I followed up the story last week and . . . they haven't even got a production schedule sorted [there are technical hurdles] let alone FDA approval. Science is Hard.
Finally for Sunday light relief I'll share my near-death encounter with Synanceia verrucosa the same warty stonefish used in the James Cook U study.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:32 PM on April 12 [8 favorites]
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