The researchers suspected that inflammation was doing most of the damage—that’s what happens when a bee stings you—but they weren’t quite sure. So they gave different doses of scorpion venom to groups of 4-6 mice and observed the different systems that activated in response. They found that even small amounts of the venom stimulated the “inflammasome”—a network of proteins that induce tissue inflammation—and that two compounds in particular came in waves to signal the start and end of that inflammation. It was the inflammation that was killing the mice—it was causing the lungs to swell, preventing them from taking in any more air. When the researchers inhibited the function of the mice’s inflammasome or gave the animals a drug to limit inflammation, the mice were able to survive what would otherwise be a lethal dose of scorpion venom. To the researchers, this suggests that anti-inflammatory drugs could be an effective way to prevent deaths from the Brazilian yellow scorpion in humans. And while this sort of experiment hasn’t been tested in humans, this new understanding of the molecular systems at play after a scorpion sting might help prevent the thousands of deaths from scorpion venom every year, or even other conditions in which inflammation plays a key role, like allergic reactions.
