title: Insulin as a weapon.
abstract: The discovery of insulin and its use for the treatment of diabetes is undoubtedly one of the true successes of modern medicine. Injectable insulin would prove the first effective treatment for a previously incurable and usually fatal disease. Soon after however, the powerful effects of insulin overdose would be reported, and subsequently exploited for dubious medical and sometimes nefarious purposes. In this article we describe the discovery that certain venomous marine snails of the genus Conus also exploit the powerful effects of insulin overdose, employing it as a weapon for prey capture.
authors: Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.
authors: Samuel D
authors: SD
authors: Robinson
authors: Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA; Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, DK-2200, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: helena.safavi@utah.edu.
authors: Helena
authors: H
authors: Safavi-Hemami
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D052078:Conus Snail / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D007328:Insulin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D008978:Mollusk Venoms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein
chemical_list: D007328:Insulin; D008978:Mollusk Venoms
keywords: Hypoglycemic shock; Insulin; Insulin shock; Predation; Venom