Marine Toxins as Promising Drug Candidates: From Venomous Creatures to Novel Therapies
A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Toxins".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: Chemical ecology; Natural products; Disease and stress responses;
Interests: Molecular neuroethology; Protein pheromones; Neuropeptides; Functional genomics; Invertebrate biology; Invasive species;
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: biology of venomous and toxic organisms; evolution; ecology; biochemistry;
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Marine organisms are prolific producers of some of the most potent known biological toxins, ranging from deadly poisons to highly specialized venoms. This remarkable biochemical diversity stems from the vast array of ecological niches in the marine environment, where toxins have evolved as adaptive traits with refined potency and distinct biological functions. These marine toxins are chemically diverse, ranging from small-molecule algal neurotoxins to the large enzymatic pore-forming toxins of scorpaeniforme fishes.
With technological advances in the elucidation, characterization, and functional assessment of toxins in recent years, along with the clinical success of drugs such as zirconotide (isolated from cone snail venom), there has never been a more fruitful time to explore their bioinnovative potential.
This Special Issue invites multidisciplinary contributions that explore the multifaceted roles of marine toxins and their promise as candidates for use in next-generation therapeutics and technologies. We welcome research that addresses the chemistry, bioprospecting, evolution, and ecology of these toxins, and which offers future perspectives to advance this field.
Dr. Cherie Motti
Prof. Dr. Scott F. Cummins
Dr. Richard J. Harris
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- Marine venoms
- Marine toxins including neurotoxins
- Marine natural products
- Marine peptides
- Ecological function of marine toxins
- Biochemical diversity
- Therapeutic applications
- Metabolomics
- Proteomics
- Transcriptomics
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