Antibiotic resistance has been reported as one of the world's most critical public health problems. Recent investigations have demonstrated that the venom of some species of snakes has antimicrobial and anticancer activities. The purpose of this study was to examine the antibacterial activity of Persian horned viper venom toward Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and also investigate antitumor effects of concentrations of venom with higher antibacterial activity in a human hepatocellular liver carcinoma cell line (HepG2) to evaluate the potential use of its components as antimicrobial and anticancer agents. Bactericidal activity of crude venom in concentrations of 6.25-400 μg/ml was performed using MTT reduction, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), agar- well diffusion, and disc diffusion methods. Tetracycline (50 μg/ml) was used as a standard antibiotic. Cytotoxic effect in HepG2 cells was measured by MTT reduction assay and confirmed with neutral uptake assay following exposure of cells with different concentrations of venom (50-400 μg/ml). The apoptotic effect was investigated using the comet assay. Our findings demonstrated that venom displays higher inhibitory effects against Gram-positive bacteria as compared to Gram- negative. Furthermore, venom showed anticancer activity on the HepG2 cell line through induction of apoptosis and necrosis. The results of this study confirmed that the venom of Persian horned viper induces antibacterial and anticancer effects. These properties make the venom of this viper a potential source for isolation of effective molecule(s) having antibacterial and antitumor activity.
Mercury is a chemical element that has been known since prehistoric times and has been used over time as a component of paints, in the treatment of various diseases, and later in various industrial compounds. Mercury enters the body transcutaneously, by inhaling or by ingesting food contaminated with mercury. The most common cause of mercury poisoning is eating seafood, but people can get mercury poisoning from industrial processing, thermometers, dental work, and old paints. The most vulnerable are people at occupational risk due to chronic exposure, as well as fetuses in the intrauterine period. Mercury poisoning produces extremely serious effects on the nervous, renal, and gastrointestinal systems. The nature and extent of mercury poisoning depend on factors such as the route of exposure, the rate of exposure, the distribution and biotransformation of mercury in the body, the chemical form of mercury or the mercury compound. Both mercury in the blood and the urine should not exceed 10 μg/L. The critical values of mercury in the blood are >150 μg/L and the lethal ones exceed 800 μg/L. New diagnostic methods allow the rapid and accurate identification of the concentration of mercury in biological products. Treatment is based on the use of chelating agents. However, the prognosis of mercury poisoning is extremely variable, due to the potentially irreversible nature of the lesions.
