Medical articles on tarantulas and other spiders

[Skulnik]

I've been a Librarian for years, and in the past 5 years have worked in specialized medical libraries. During that time I've done quite a bit of research on arachnids, tarantulas in particular. I've compiled a short list of some of the most intriquing articles I've come across.

Here are the citations for anyone who is interested and knows how to use the library :

Toxicon. 1973 Jan;11(1):21-9.
Composition and properties of tarantula Dugesiella hentzi (Girard) venom.
Schanbacher FL, Lee CK, Hall JE, Wilson IB, Howell DE, Odell GV.

Br J Ophthalmol. 1991 Apr;75(4):253-4.
Corneal penetration by tarantula hairs.
Chang PC, Soong HK, Barnett JM.
Here's a link to a free copy: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=2021600

J Anxiety Disord. 2005;19(4):461-75.
Disgust as a motivator of avoidance of spiders.
Woody SR, McLean C, Klassen T.
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
swoody@psych.ubc.ca

Micron. 2004;35(1-2):15-6.
Tarantula hemocyanins imaged by atomic force microscopy.
Möller M, Decker H.
Institut für Molekulare Biophysik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz 55099, Germany.

Nature. 2006 Sep 28;443(7110):407.
Biomaterials: silk-like secretion from tarantula feet.
Gorb SN, Niederegger S, Hayashi CY, Summers AP, Vötsch W, Walther P.
Evolutionary Biomaterials Group, Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany. s.gorb@mf.mpg.de

Comp Biochem Physiol A Mol Integr Physiol. 2005 Dec;142(4):439-45. Epub 2005 Nov 28.
Inter-sexual differences in resting metabolic rates in the Texas tarantula,
Aphonopelma anax.
Shillington C.
Department of Biology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.

Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 1997 Dec;147(2):363-71.
The effect of the venom of a Chilean tarantula, Phrixotrichus spatulatus, on
isolated guinea pig ventricular myocytes.
Pascarel C, Cazorla O, Le Guennec JY, Orchard CH, White E.
Laboratoire de Physiologie des Cellules Cardiaques et Vasculaires, CNRS, UMR
6542, Faculté des Sciences, Tours, France.

Arch Ophthalmol. 1999 Aug;117(8):1096-7.
Keratitis and retinitis secondary to tarantula hair.
Shrum KR, Robertson DM, Baratz KH, Casperson TJ, Rostvold JA.
Ophthalmology Department, The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn 55905, USA.

Adverse Drug React Toxicol Rev. 1996 Nov;15(4):199-202.
The tarantula--poison spider or a case of mistaken identity?

Toxicon. 1990;28(5):541-6.
Chemical characterization of acylpolyamine toxins from venom of a trap-door
spider and two tarantulas.
Skinner WS, Dennis PA, Lui A, Carney RL, Quistad GB.
Sandoz Crop Protection Corporation, Research Division, Palo Alto, CA 94304

Toxicon. 1972 May;10(3):305-6.
Effects of a scorpion venom on a tarantula.
Wheeling CH, Keegan HL.

Biol Chem Hoppe Seyler. 1989 May;370(5):485-98.
Tarantula (Eurypelma californicum) venom, a multicomponent system.
Savel-Niemann A.
Zoologisches Institut der Universität München

Toxicon. 1994 Sep;32(9):1083-93.
Primary structures of two proteins from the venom of the Mexican red knee
tarantula (Brachypelma smithii).
Kaiser II, Griffin PR, Aird SD, Hudiburg S, Shabanowitz J, Francis B, John TR,
Hunt DF, Odell GV.
Department of Molecular Biology, University of Wyoming, Laramie 82071

I have many more if anyone's interested.
Thanks!

 

[reverendsterlin]

always nice to see someone reading the science aspects, even better you probably have access to the ones on JSTOR and ScienceDigest, join BTS and you can get most of the ones I miss or get well after they are written. Makes me not feel so lonely lol. nice links.
Rev

 

[Skulnik]

always nice to see someone reading the science aspects, even better you probably have access to the ones on JSTOR and ScienceDigest, join BTS and you can get most of the ones I miss or get well after they are written. Makes me not feel so lonely lol. nice links.
Rev

Thanks, I've been adding more, but I'll stop and add more later. I have a pretty comprehensive collection and i figured we Arachnophiles are interested to see what the "outside world" is gathering.

 

[smartie]

Thank you! I have been trying to find proper sources of more scientific info for a long time! You have helped me a lot

 

[Skulnik]

Thank you! I have been trying to find proper sources of more scientific info for a long time! You have helped me a lot

Good! That's kind of what I was going for.

Let me know if you want any of these! Thanks!

 

[Skulnik]

Here's a few more...

Toxicon. 2004 Apr;43(5):555-74.
Tarantulas: eight-legged pharmacists and combinatorial chemists.
Escoubas P, Rash L.
Institut de Pharmacologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire-CNRS, 660 Route des Lucioles, Valbonne 06560, France. escoubas@ipmc.cnrs.fr


FEBS Lett. 1995 May 1;364(1):9-12.
Extreme thermostability of tarantula hemocyanin.
Sterner R, Vogl T, Hinz HJ, Penz F, Hoff R, Föll R, Decker H.
Dept. of Biophysical Chemistry, University of Basel, Switzerland.


Exp Mol Pathol. 1983 Jun;38(3):283-96.
Pathogenesis of skeletal muscle necrosis induced by tarantula venom.
Ownby CL, Odell GV.

More to come...