Citation

Robinson SD, Safavi-Hemami H. Toxicon 2016; 123: 56-61.

Affiliation

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.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.toxicon.2016.10.010

PMID

27777069

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.

Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Language: en