Predicting antibacterial activity from snake venom proteomes

The continued evolution of antibiotic resistance has increased the urgency for new antibiotic development, leading to exploration of non-traditional sources. In particular, snake venom has garnered attention for its potent antibacterial properties. Numerous studies describing snake venom proteomic composition as well as antibiotic efficacy have created an opportunity to synthesize relationships between venom proteomes and their antibacterial properties. Using literature reported values from peer-reviewed studies, our study generated models to predict efficacy given venom protein family composition, snake taxonomic family, bacterial Gram stain, bacterial morphology, and bacterial respiration strategy. We then applied our predictive models to untested snake species with known venom proteomic compositions. Overall, our results provide potential protein families that serve as accurate predictors of efficacy as well as promising organisms in terms of antibacterial properties of venom. The results from this study suggest potential future research trajectories for antibacterial properties in snake venom by offering hypotheses for a variety of taxa.

抗生素耐药性（antibiotic resistance）的持续演化，使得新型抗生素研发的紧迫性与日俱增，由此推动了非传统抗菌来源的探索。其中，蛇毒因其强效抗菌活性受到广泛关注。已有大量研究针对蛇毒的蛋白质组组成及其抗菌功效展开报道，这为厘清蛇毒蛋白质组与其抗菌特性之间的关联提供了可行契机。本研究基于同行评议（peer-reviewed）文献中的已公开数据，构建了若干预测模型，可依据蛇毒蛋白质家族组成、蛇类分类科别、细菌革兰氏染色（Gram stain）特性、细菌形态以及细菌呼吸代谢策略，预测蛇毒的抗菌功效。随后，我们将该预测模型应用于一批已明确蛇毒蛋白质组组成、但尚未开展抗菌活性测试的蛇类物种。总体而言，本研究结果筛选出了可精准预测抗菌功效的潜在蛋白质家族，同时也鉴定出一批在蛇毒抗菌特性方面具备开发潜力的蛇类类群。本研究通过为不同蛇类类群提出针对性研究假说，为蛇毒抗菌特性的未来研究方向提供了潜在的参考路径。