The Anthelmintic Activity of Stonefish (Synanceia spp.) Ichthyocrinotoxins and Their Potential as Novel Therapeutics
Lennox-Bulow, Danica, Seymour, Jamie, Loukas, Alex, and Smout, Michael (2025) The Anthelmintic Activity of Stonefish (Synanceia spp.) Ichthyocrinotoxins and Their Potential as Novel Therapeutics. Toxins, 17 (2). 66.
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Abstract
Parasitic gastrointestinal worms (i.e., helminths) remain a significant global health and economic burden. The increasing inefficacy of current anthelmintic drugs against parasitic diseases necessitates the discovery of novel therapeutic options. This study investigated the anthelmintic properties and therapeutic potential of stonefish ichthyocrinotoxins (i.e., secreted skin toxins). xWORM (xCELLigence Worm Real-Time Motility Assay) was used to evaluate the anthelmintic activity of ichthyocrinotoxins from two stonefish species, Synanceia horrida (Estuarine Stonefish) and Synanceia verrucosa (Reef Stonefish), against the infective third-stage larvae of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (Rodent Hookworm). Both toxins demonstrated potent anthelmintic effects, with S. horrida ichthyocrinotoxin exhibiting greater potency (IC<inf>50</inf> = 196.0 µg/mL) compared to ichthyocrinotoxin from S. verrucosa (IC<inf>50</inf> = 329.7 µg/mL). Fractionation revealed that the anthelmintic activity of S. verrucosa is likely driven by synergistic interactions between the large (>3 kDa) and small (<3 kDa) components. In contrast, the small components isolated from S. horrida ichthyocrinotoxin were responsible for the majority of the observed activity, making them a more attractive therapeutic candidate. Furthermore, despite the cytotoxicity of crude S. horrida ichthyocrinotoxin against human skin and bile duct cell lines, the isolated small components exhibited potent anthelmintic effects (IC<inf>50</inf> = 70.5 µg/mL) with negligible cytotoxicity (<10% decrease in survival at 100 µg/mL). While further research is necessary to fully characterise these compounds and assess their clinical suitability, this study highlights the potential of stonefish ichthyocrinotoxins as a novel source of anthelmintic therapeutics.
| Item ID: | 88318 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 2072-6651 |
| Keywords: | anthelmintic, ichthyocrinotoxin, novel compounds, stonefish, therapeutics, toxins |
| Copyright Information: | © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Apr 2026 04:43 |
| FoR Codes: | 32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3205 Medical biochemistry and metabolomics > 320599 Medical biochemistry and metabolomics not elsewhere classified @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 20 HEALTH > 2001 Clinical health > 200105 Treatment of human diseases and conditions @ 100% |
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