Bioprospecting Life Saving Drugs from Jellyfish Venom

Abstract

Many people are being stung every year by poisonous jellyfish worldwide, but the statistical reports regarding mortality are also poorly available. There has been a large number of research for the treatment of jellyfish stings. Still, only a very few toxic components or active metabolites of jellyfish venoms have been identified so far, suggesting it is one of the most under-developed areas in toxicology research. It is probably due to difficulty in collecting jellyfish venom of high purity without contamination of other tissue debris and toxins identified from jellyfish venoms are proteins, and many are intrinsically susceptible and easily denatured by adverse environmental conditions resulting in the loss of their biological activity. Different protein toxins have been reported from various jellyfish species. In this article, various beneficial effects of jellyfish venoms that the researchers have previously reported are summarised to unveil the novel therapeutic agents with the aim of benefits to human.