• Venomous snakes bite around 150,000 dogs and cats in the United States each year. (pethealthnetwork.com)
  • Where do you find venomous snakes? (pethealthnetwork.com)
  • There are 20 species of venomous snakes in North America and they are found in every state except Alaska, Hawaii and Maine. (pethealthnetwork.com)
  • There are two families of venomous snakes in the US: the Crotalidae family (pit vipers such as rattlesnakes, copperhead, and water moccasins) and the Elapidae family (coral snakes). (pethealthnetwork.com)
  • Rainy seasons in Nigeria bring out venomous snakes, which emerge from their shelters to hunt and breed. (cnn.com)
  • Not all snakebites result in envenoming: some snakes are non-venomous and venomous snakes do not always inject venom during a bite. (who.int)
  • Co-author Bryan Fry, who heads up UQ's Venom Evolution Lab , says the results also showed that monitor lizards (otherwise known as goannas) - which eat these venomous snakes - are not resistant to the venom. (cosmosmagazine.com)
  • Goannas are heavily armoured and their scales act like medieval chain mail, with each containing a piece of bone, meaning venomous snakes' fangs struggle to pierce this armour. (cosmosmagazine.com)
  • Present-day venomous snakes and other snake species diverged around 50 million years ago and both already carry functional 3FTx genes. (technologynetworks.com)
  • Consequently, venomous snakes carry multiple copies of the gene. (technologynetworks.com)
  • Three-finger toxins (abbreviated 3FTx) are a protein superfamily of small toxin proteins found in the venom of snakes. (wikipedia.org)
  • Three-finger toxins are in turn members of a larger superfamily of three-finger protein domains which includes non-toxic proteins that share a similar protein fold. (wikipedia.org)
  • The three-finger toxin superfamily is defined by a common tertiary structure consisting of three beta strand-containing loops (designated loops I, II, and III) projecting from a small hydrophobic core containing four conserved disulfide bonds. (wikipedia.org)
  • The superfamily can be broadly divided into three classes: short-chain toxins have under 66 residues and four core disulfide bonds. (wikipedia.org)
  • The explosive radiation and diversification of the advanced snakes (superfamily Colubroidea) was associated with changes in all aspects of the shared venom system. (universiteitleiden.nl)
  • Domain loss enabled evolution of novel functions in the snake three-finger toxin gene superfamily. (technologynetworks.com)
  • Animal Toxins: How is Complexity Represented in Databases? (mdpi.com)
  • Second, the new peptides do not contain disulfide bonds, a post-translational modification commonly encountered in animal toxins. (springer.com)
  • Another characteristic of animal toxins is the remarkable number and variety of post-translational modifications (PTMs). (springer.com)
  • Phosphorylation of animal toxins has not been described in the literature so far, in contrast to glycosylation for which few articles were published [ 20 ]. (springer.com)
  • We are expanding on our Designer Toxins technology - a constantly growing library of natural animal toxins and their combinatorial variants that are screened against a target of interest…" Takacs said. (jhunewsletter.com)
  • They have multiplied quickly because there aren't any known predators on the island to prey on the snakes and eat them. (hl7.network)
  • They also reduce immunogenic reactions of the prey animals, leading to an increase of the toxin efficiency to reach its receptor. (springer.com)
  • These toxins target normal biological processes in snakes' prey, such as blood clotting or nerve-cell signalling, and stop them from working properly. (earthsky.org)
  • The venom gland of snakes appears to be a melting pot for evolving new functions for molecules, some of which are retained in venom for killing prey, while others go on to serve new functions in other tissues in the body. (earthsky.org)
  • But snakes' and reptiles' prey tends to evolve resistance to venom, which means that venoms have to continually evolve to remain effective. (earthsky.org)
  • Similarly, deadly toxins are of no advantage to individual prey if it dies delivering the toxins. (bioone.org)
  • This is a remarkable example of snakes switching prey as a defensive mechanism, to protect against their own predators. (zmescience.com)
  • This is the first documented case of a vertebrate predator switching from a vertebrate prey to an invertebrate prey for the selective advantage of getting the same chemical class of defensive toxin," says Savitzky, professor in USU's Department of Biology and the USU Ecology Center. (zmescience.com)
  • Snakes use venom for hunting and self-defense, as well as for digesting prey. (scoiltrad.com)
  • This natural weapon drains the energy of a snake, so they only use it when threatened or to kill their prey. (scoiltrad.com)
  • The hemotoxic venom in snakes kills its prey and can also cause deadly internal bleeding (hemorrhagic) in humans. (scoiltrad.com)
  • Ecologically, the neurotoxic proteins in viper and rattlesnake venoms tend to focus on endothermic prey (like mammals, birds and other vertebrates) while hemotoxins dominate in ectothermic snake venoms like those of spitting cobras and adder family members. (scoiltrad.com)
  • Solutions or mixtures of toxic and nontoxic substances elaborated by snake (Ophidia) salivary glands for the purpose of killing prey or disabling predators and delivered by grooved or hollow fangs. (bvsalud.org)
  • Among hundreds, even thousands of proteins found in the venom, there are toxins, as well as nontoxic proteins (which also have pharmacological properties), and many enzymes. (snakevenomdb.org)
  • Sea snakes, venomous elapid snakes that inhabit marine environments, are the most abundant and widely dispersed group of poisonous reptiles in the world. (medscape.com)
  • According to a 2004 National Geographic story, the honey badger can travel up to 40 kilometers a day in their persistent, never-ending hunt for food, which includes insects, rodents, birds, and poisonous snakes. (longislandpress.com)
  • Anything that's "poisonous" unloads toxins when you eat it, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica . (readersdigest.ca)
  • So saying a snake is "poisonous" is almost always incorrect as the snake bite is what usually releases toxins. (readersdigest.ca)
  • A team of biologists has made a surprising discovery: a group of snakes switched from eating toads to eating earthworks so they can be poisonous to their own predators . (zmescience.com)
  • Poisonous spiders, snakes, and insects can be found throughout the U.S., varying with the geographic regions. (cdc.gov)
  • This volume explores techniques and protocols, across various biological disciplines, used to study snake and spider peptide toxins. (ebooksmedicine.net)
  • Anyway, such small glycosylated and proline-rich toxins are totally different from any other known snake peptide and form, as a consequence, a new family of peptides. (springer.com)
  • Animal venoms represent a very large group of bioactive peptide toxins. (springer.com)
  • Snake venoms are complex mixtures of protein and peptide toxins, varying from one species to another, and even within species. (who.int)
  • We report on a case of potential envenomation caused by multiple bites by the aglyphous opisthodont snake Leioheterodon madagascariensis in the left thumb of a healthy adult man, which is among the most serious snakebites hitherto reported from Madagascar. (biomedcentral.com)
  • Nearly 80% of sea snake bites fail to produce significant envenomation, and bites may be inconspicuous, painless, and free of edema. (medscape.com)
  • Here in Maryland, only two to six people a year are bitten by snakes, and these bites rarely result in death. (jhunewsletter.com)
  • and drawing out poisons and toxins from bites and stings-even snake bites! (wakeup-world.com)
  • They also rarely catch Lyme disease from tick bites, and are immune to the stings of honeybees and scorpions, botulism toxin, and snake venom. (wildlifehc.org)
  • were recorded 28.812 cases of snake bites per year, 60.370,8 with scorpions and 25.786,4 with spiders. (bvsalud.org)
  • In males individuals were most cases of snake bites, whereas in accidents scorpions and spiders was observed little difference in frequency between men and women. (bvsalud.org)
  • UQ researcher and study co-author Nicholas Youngman says mammalian - and especially human - reactions have been widely studied, but very little is known about the effects of snake venom on other reptiles. (cosmosmagazine.com)
  • These snakes bend their necks in a defensive posture that surprises unlucky predators with a mouthful of toxins," says Utah State University herpetologist Alan Savitzky, who has long studied the slithery reptiles. (zmescience.com)
  • Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have investigated how the toxin emerged between 50 and 120 million years ago through the modification of a gene that also occurs in mammals and other reptiles. (technologynetworks.com)
  • The team working with Burkhard Rost, a professor of bioinformatics , discovered that three-finger toxins developed over time from the Ly6 gene, which is also present in mammals and other reptiles. (technologynetworks.com)
  • Venomous or toxin-producing spiders, insects, and reptiles. (cdc.gov)
  • And if you make a change to one region that interacts with another region, then they might work together to produce, for example, resistance to a toxin. (thenakedscientists.com)
  • Moving the rat mutation onto a snake did not give snake resistance, and moving the mutation from a snake onto an ostrich ended up disabling the function of the protein. (thenakedscientists.com)
  • After earning a Ph.D. from Columbia in evolutionary studies on cobra venom resistance, and serving on the University of Chicago faculty, Takacs is taking the toxin-tweaking to a different level. (jhunewsletter.com)
  • I'm a graduate student studying toxin resistance in snakes. (kingsnake.com)
  • Deadly toxins and resistance to them are an evolutionary enigma. (bioone.org)
  • The blue-tongue lizard, an iconic Aussie species, has developed resistance to the venom of the red-bellied black snake. (cosmosmagazine.com)
  • It was a shock discovering that the eastern blue-tongue, along with the shingleback, showed resistance specifically to red black snake venom," Youngman says. (cosmosmagazine.com)
  • Since their resistance was so specific to only this snake species, it seems these lizards have evolved a special plasma component - known as a serum factor - in their blood. (cosmosmagazine.com)
  • Then, Vaelli says, the pressure would be back on snakes to evolve greater resistance to the toxin. (thesaurus.com)
  • Snake venom contains mainly proteins and peptides (90-95% of the dry weight of venom) and they are responsible for almost all of its biological effects. (snakevenomdb.org)
  • Snake venoms are complex mixtures of biologically active proteins, peptides, metal ions and organic compounds, which have evolved to favor the survival of the snake in its particular environment [ 1 ]. (mdpi.com)
  • Snake venom contains a mixture of enzymes and peptides that cause a number of different signs and symptoms in pets. (pethealthnetwork.com)
  • This study describes the structural characterization of a totally new family of peptides from the venom of the snake green mamba ( Dendroaspis angusticeps) . (springer.com)
  • Interestingly, these peptides differ in several points from other already known mamba toxins. (springer.com)
  • Toxins can be small molecules , peptides , or proteins that are capable of causing disease on contact with or absorption by body tissues interacting with biological macromolecules such as enzymes or cellular receptors . (wikipedia.org)
  • They compared these sequences with those from venom glands in a wide range of snakes and lizards, constructing an evolutionary tree to work out the relationships between the various sequences. (earthsky.org)
  • This prevents specific toxins in red-bellied black snake venom from clotting the lizards' plasma, which would lead to a rapid death in most other animals. (cosmosmagazine.com)
  • The research team analysed the effects of red-bellied black snake venom on two species of blue-tongued skinks and three species of monitor lizards that are known to interact with the snakes in the wild. (cosmosmagazine.com)
  • Dr. Ivan Koludarov, a researcher at the Chair for Bioinformatics and a first author of the study says: "It is inferred from previous studies that snakes diverged from other lizards around 120 million years ago. (technologynetworks.com)
  • Snakebite envenoming is a potentially life-threatening disease that typically results from the injection of a mixture of different toxins ("venom") following the bite of a venomous snake. (who.int)
  • the presynaptic β-neurotoxic heterodimeric PLA(2), Mojave toxin, and two serine proteinases comprise, respectively, 66 and 27% of the C. tigris toxin arsenal, whereas a VEGF-like protein, a CRISP molecule, a medium-sized disintegrin, and 1-2 PIII-SVMPs each represent 0.1-5% of the total venom proteome. (unboundmedicine.com)
  • Muscarinic toxins can be either receptor agonists or receptor antagonists, and in some cases the same 3FTx protein is an agonist at one receptor subtype and an antagonist at another. (wikipedia.org)
  • Furthermore, we have evaluated the efficacy of both α-BS to neutralize key toxic compounds belonging to the predominant protein families of Bothrops snakes. (edu.pe)
  • These mutations alter the biochemistry of that region of the protein, so that instead of binding to the toxins, they repel them. (thenakedscientists.com)
  • Your gene for the sodium potassium pump protein is slightly different than that of a, for example, hognose snake. (thenakedscientists.com)
  • A team of researchers has studied how the protein structure of snake venoms known as three-finger toxins (3FTxs) has changed over the course of evolution. (technologynetworks.com)
  • As a result, the function of the protein encoded by the gene changed so radically that it no longer performs its original function and instead acts as a toxin. (technologynetworks.com)
  • Based on the resulting protein structures, we can distinguish four forms of the 3FTx toxin. (technologynetworks.com)
  • Since aglyphous snakes are relatively rarely involved in "envenomation" and because hemolytic activity has been recorded in the secretions of the Duvernoy's glands of Leioheterodon, we describe its dentition using microcomputed tomography and discuss the potential mode of envenomation in this case. (biomedcentral.com)
  • However, sea snake venom is extremely potent, and a complete envenomation by an adult sea snake may contain enough venom to kill 3 adult people. (medscape.com)
  • Sea snake envenomations occur throughout the serpents' geographic ranges, but accurate data about the incidence of envenomation are not available. (medscape.com)
  • The venom apparatus of sea snakes is fairly rudimentary, consisting of 2-4 short hollow maxillary fangs associated with a pair of venom-producing glands. (medscape.com)
  • Snake venom can only cause harm to goannas if it's injected into its body by the snake's fangs - it can't be absorbed directly through the skin. (cosmosmagazine.com)
  • The parenteral administration of antivenom is the mainstay and the only validated treatment of snake bite envenoming. (edu.pe)
  • Thus, our data indicate that both α-BS are equally effective to treat snake bite victims inflicted by Bothrops snakes particularly B. atrox, responsible for the largest numbers of human envenomations in the Amazon regions of some South American countries including Peru and Brazil. (edu.pe)
  • Snakes bite when they feel threatened. (pethealthnetwork.com)
  • A girl is treated for a snake bite at a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) clinic in Leer County, South Sudan. (cnn.com)
  • Venomous" applies to animals that bite or sting, injecting toxins. (readersdigest.ca)
  • One exception is the garter snake which has a small or harmless bite but is toxic to eat, per the Encyclopedia. (readersdigest.ca)
  • The word toxin does not specify method of delivery (as opposed to venom , a toxin delivered via a bite, sting, etc. (wikipedia.org)
  • Snake venoms are complex toxin mixtures. (mdpi.com)
  • Despite the fact that different antigen mixtures were used for immunization during antivenom production, our data showed high toxin-neutralizing activity of α-BS raised against Bothrops venoms. (edu.pe)
  • The venoms of most snake species are mixtures of hemotoxic and neurotoxic proteins. (scoiltrad.com)
  • it was through the study of this toxin that nAChRs were isolated and characterized, which facilitated the study of the subunit composition of tissue-specific nAChRs and the detailed pharmacological understanding of the neuromuscular junction. (wikipedia.org)
  • Snakebite Awareness Day, Freek Vonk and I were invited by Op1 (Dutch talkshow) to talk about the problem of snakebites and our research into snake venom. (naturalis.nl)
  • To achieve this, we use a strong multidisciplinary approach by collaborating with different groups and combining laboratory studies, clinical investigation of snakebite victims, public outreach to raise awareness about snakes and snakebites, and policy development. (reading.ac.uk)
  • Our research also involves studying how snake venom toxins affect the body under different conditions and improving diagnostic and treatment methods for snakebites. (reading.ac.uk)
  • We are now focusing on understanding the molecular makeup of snake venom toxins and how they interact with the blood, muscles, and nervous system as well as other tissues, and developing next-generation antivenoms to treat snakebites. (reading.ac.uk)
  • Our ultimate goal is to greatly reduce the impact of snakebites in rural communities living in poverty by improving scientific research on venoms and public knowledge about snakes/snakebites. (reading.ac.uk)
  • However, despite the evolutionary novelty of snake venoms, in-depth toxin molecular evolutionary history reconstructions have been mostly limited to those types present in only two front-fanged snake families, Elapidae and Viperidae. (universiteitleiden.nl)
  • The objective is to analyze the morbidity, mortality and lethality according to age and sex in cases of poisoning by snakes, scorpions and spiders in Brazil. (bvsalud.org)
  • data on poisoning by snakes, scorpions and spiders that occurred from 2009 to 2013 were collected in the online database of the Information System on Diseases of Compulsory Declaration (SINAN) of the Ministry of Health. (bvsalud.org)
  • Genus Micrurus - coral snake, responsible for by snakes, scorpions, and spiders.3 Poisoning by 0.86% of cases). (bvsalud.org)
  • Keelbacks, snakes belonging to the Rhabdophis genus, sport glands in their skin, sometimes just around the neck, where they store bufadienolides -- a class of toxic steroids meant as a deterrent for their predators. (zmescience.com)
  • Snake venom is a cocktail of enzymes, proteins, polypeptides and other compounds. (snakevenomdb.org)
  • Regarding only snake venoms, several high mass enzymes have been found to be glycosylated. (springer.com)
  • They usually contain enzymes, toxins, and other factors. (bvsalud.org)
  • In fact, snakes' ability to revert their toxins back into harmless molecules is one of the empowering characteristics useful in the treatment of diseases like cancer. (jhunewsletter.com)
  • Now researchers have discovered that the toxins that make snake and lizard venom deadly can evolve back into completely harmless molecules, raising the possibility that they could be developed into drugs. (earthsky.org)
  • Snake researchers were aware that venom toxins evolve from harmless molecules that do fairly mundane jobs elsewhere in the body. (earthsky.org)
  • Administration of antivenins aimed at the neutralization of toxins in humans is prone to potential risks. (mdpi.com)
  • Neutralization of snake venom toxins has been achieved through different approaches: plant extracts have been utilized in etnomedicine. (mdpi.com)
  • However, the thought of what a snake's deadly toxins can do in minutes still sends chills down our spines. (jhunewsletter.com)
  • But the researchers' discovery that there may be many harmless versions of venom toxins throughout a snake's body opens the door to a whole new era of drug discovery. (earthsky.org)
  • Another type of toxin is a presynaptic neurotoxin, such as those in the venoms of viperids. (scoiltrad.com)
  • These toxins, such as crotoxin from the pit viper C. durissus terrificus and a-agkistrodotoxin from the Agkistrodon halys pallas, act on presynaptic neuromuscular junctions to prevent the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. (scoiltrad.com)
  • Structure of the Native Muscle-type Nicotinic Receptor and Inhibition by Snake Venom Toxins, Neuron (2020). (phys.org)
  • 2020). Neutralizing effects of small molecule inhibitors and metal chelators on coagulopathic Viperinae snake venom toxins. (naturalis.nl)
  • Almost every Brazilian knows in regards to the island, however most would by no means dream of going there-it is infested with between 2,000 and four,000 golden lancehead vipers, one of the deadliest snakes in the complete world. (hl7.network)
  • Sub-Saharan Africa is home to many of the world's deadliest snakes, including the black mamba and the carpet viper, and they exact a terrible toll. (cnn.com)
  • The molecular mass of classical mamba toxins is in the range of 7 to 25 kDa. (springer.com)
  • Most venom contains a huge variety of lethal molecules called toxins, which evolve from harmless compounds that used to do different jobs elsewhere in the body. (earthsky.org)
  • How Did Snake Venom Evolve? (technologynetworks.com)
  • This venom exhibits the highest lethality for mice among rattlesnakes and the simplest toxin proteome reported to date. (unboundmedicine.com)
  • This 3FTx group is sometimes referred to as the "curaremimetic" toxins due to the similarity of their effects with the plant alkaloid curare. (wikipedia.org)
  • BACKGROUND: Fasciculin (FAS), a 61-residue polypeptide purified from mamba venom, is a three-fingered toxin which is a powerful reversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase (AChE). (proteopedia.org)
  • the alpha-neurotoxin family interacts with muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), the kappa-bungarotoxin family with neuronal nAChRs, and muscarinic toxins with muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs). (wikipedia.org)
  • In addition, we found that venom lethality of C. tigris and other North American rattlesnake type II venoms correlates with the concentration of Mojave toxin A-subunit, supporting the view that the neurotoxic venom phenotype of crotalid type II venoms may be described as a single-allele adaptation. (unboundmedicine.com)
  • The humble blue-tongue lizard, an iconic Aussie species, is resistant to the venom of the deadly red-bellied black snake, according to new research from the University of Queensland (UQ). (cosmosmagazine.com)
  • The deadly red-bellied black snake. (cosmosmagazine.com)
  • 2018). Mud in the blood: Documentation of novel potent anticoagulant coagulotoxicity in the venoms of the Australian elapid snake genus Denisonia (mud adders) and relative antivenom efficacy. (naturalis.nl)
  • 2019). Differential destructive (non-clotting) fibrinogenolytic activity in Afro-Asian elapid snake venoms and the links to defensive hooding behavior. (naturalis.nl)
  • A juvenile Rhabdophis tigrinus 'keelback' snake from the Japanese island of Ishima, in a defensive posture. (zmescience.com)
  • However, they also respond to other molecules found outside the body, such as nicotine, the essential nutrient choline, and a toxin found on the skin of poison dart frogs called epibatidine. (phys.org)
  • Venom from some snakes, particularly elapids and viperids, attacks the nervous system directly. (scoiltrad.com)
  • A deeper knowledge of alternative ways to inhibit venom toxins may provide supplemental treatments to serum therapy. (mdpi.com)
  • To have a broader understanding of toxins shared among extant snakes, here we first sequenced the transcriptomes of eight taxonomically diverse rear-fanged species and four key viperid species and analysed major toxin types shared across the advanced snakes. (universiteitleiden.nl)
  • On a broader scale, toxins may be classified as either exotoxins , excreted by an organism, or endotoxins , which are released mainly when bacteria are lysed . (wikipedia.org)
  • therefore, some paraspecificity exists between sea snake antivenom and Australian elapid antivenom. (medscape.com)
  • This is why it's important to understand the type of snake that bit you and use the right antivenom when necessary. (scoiltrad.com)
  • We would] protect the world's habitats and species, while making all toxins available for research, drug discovery and bioengineering. (jhunewsletter.com)
  • If public redemption became a possibility through education, snakes might just live to partake in medical breakthroughs addressing the world's greatest health obstacles. (jhunewsletter.com)
  • Casewell and colleagues from Bangor University and the Australian National University used recently published gene sequences from the Garter snake and the Burmese python in their study. (earthsky.org)
  • Moreover, the generation of anaphylatoxins (C3a and C5a) and the soluble terminal complement complex (sTCC) indicates that human blood exposure to the toxin activates the complement system. (butantan.gov.br)
  • Males are bitten much more commonly than females, with a male-to-female ratio of approximately 4:1, because of the increased occupational exposure to sea snakes by male fishermen. (medscape.com)
  • Exposure to toxins, such as pesticides or carbon monoxide, may cause injury or death. (cdc.gov)
  • Family of snakes that are responsible for thousands of deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. (cnn.com)
  • In the course of evolution the Ly6 gene, which generates the instructions for the toxin, doubled repeatedly. (technologynetworks.com)
  • Tobias Senoner, a doctoral candidate at the Chair for Bioinformatics adds: "The gene has mutated in different ways in the various snake species. (technologynetworks.com)
  • Thankfully, the most typical snakes in the UK aren't lethal, with the adder the one venomous species. (hl7.network)
  • Many snake venom toxins target the same physiological pathways that doctors would like to target to treat a variety of medical conditions. (earthsky.org)
  • Understanding how toxins can be tamed into harmless physiological proteins may aid development of cures from venom. (earthsky.org)
  • He now travels the world in search of snakes and other venomous creatures, collecting their tissues for toxin RNA and DNA, and assembling toxin libraries for drug discovery. (jhunewsletter.com)
  • Cutting-edge and thorough, Snake and Spider Toxins: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for both novice and expert researchers who are interested in learning more about this evolving field. (ebooksmedicine.net)
  • The understanding of the toxins could help in the development of new treatment methods for type 2 diabetes or hypertension, for example, or better pain medications. (technologynetworks.com)
  • Although they are not immune to snake toxins, they have been observed to recover within a relatively short amount of time. (longislandpress.com)
  • Even then, it passes out for two hours and then gets back up to finish its meal-even though National Geographic notes that it is not immune to toxin. (longislandpress.com)
  • Toxins produced by microorganisms are important virulence determinants responsible for microbial pathogenicity and/or evasion of the host immune response . (wikipedia.org)
  • An estimated 20 million toxins in well more than 100,000 venomous animal species exist in nature," Zoltan Takacs, pharmacologist and founder of the World Toxin Bank, said. (jhunewsletter.com)
  • The toxins in snake venoms are evolutionarily adapted to interact with a large variety of cellular targets in the organisms exposed to them. (who.int)