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Envenoming by a Marine Blood Worm (Glycera)

Bites from venomous marine annelid ‘bloodworms’ (e.g., Glycera spp.) do not appear to have been described in the medical literature despite being seemingly well-known to bait diggers and fishermen. The few laboratory study reports describe their venom composition and physiological effects in vitro t...

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Autores principales: Durkin, Daniela M., Young, Alison N., Khtikian, Kent, Karjala, Zuzana, Isenstein, Arin L., Fry, Bryan G., Lewin, Matthew R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9319062/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35878233
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins14070495
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author Durkin, Daniela M.
Young, Alison N.
Khtikian, Kent
Karjala, Zuzana
Isenstein, Arin L.
Fry, Bryan G.
Lewin, Matthew R.
author_facet Durkin, Daniela M.
Young, Alison N.
Khtikian, Kent
Karjala, Zuzana
Isenstein, Arin L.
Fry, Bryan G.
Lewin, Matthew R.
author_sort Durkin, Daniela M.
collection PubMed
description Bites from venomous marine annelid ‘bloodworms’ (e.g., Glycera spp.) do not appear to have been described in the medical literature despite being seemingly well-known to bait diggers and fishermen. The few laboratory study reports describe their venom composition and physiological effects in vitro to be primarily proteolytic enzymes and neurotoxins apparently used for predation and defense. Herein, we present the report of a symptomatic envenoming suffered by a marine ecologist bitten while performing her field research. The local effects included a rapid onset of pain, swelling, and numbness at the bite site “as if injected with local anesthetic”. Additional signs and symptoms appearing over a two-week period were consistent with both delayed venom effects and potentially secondary infection. The late signs and symptoms resolved during a course of antibiotic treatment with doxycycline prescribed as a precaution and lack of resources to consider a wound culture. Comments about annelid bites sporadically appear in the popular literature, especially pertaining to the fishing industry, under names such as ‘bait-diggers hand’. While these bites are not known to be dangerously venomous, they seem to produce painful local symptoms and possibly increase the risk of marine bacterial infections that could be associated with more serious outcomes. More cases need to be formally described to better understand the natural history of these types of envenomation.
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spelling pubmed-93190622022-07-27 Envenoming by a Marine Blood Worm (Glycera) Durkin, Daniela M. Young, Alison N. Khtikian, Kent Karjala, Zuzana Isenstein, Arin L. Fry, Bryan G. Lewin, Matthew R. Toxins (Basel) Case Report Bites from venomous marine annelid ‘bloodworms’ (e.g., Glycera spp.) do not appear to have been described in the medical literature despite being seemingly well-known to bait diggers and fishermen. The few laboratory study reports describe their venom composition and physiological effects in vitro to be primarily proteolytic enzymes and neurotoxins apparently used for predation and defense. Herein, we present the report of a symptomatic envenoming suffered by a marine ecologist bitten while performing her field research. The local effects included a rapid onset of pain, swelling, and numbness at the bite site “as if injected with local anesthetic”. Additional signs and symptoms appearing over a two-week period were consistent with both delayed venom effects and potentially secondary infection. The late signs and symptoms resolved during a course of antibiotic treatment with doxycycline prescribed as a precaution and lack of resources to consider a wound culture. Comments about annelid bites sporadically appear in the popular literature, especially pertaining to the fishing industry, under names such as ‘bait-diggers hand’. While these bites are not known to be dangerously venomous, they seem to produce painful local symptoms and possibly increase the risk of marine bacterial infections that could be associated with more serious outcomes. More cases need to be formally described to better understand the natural history of these types of envenomation. MDPI 2022-07-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9319062/ /pubmed/35878233 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins14070495 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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/).
spellingShingle Case Report
Durkin, Daniela M.
Young, Alison N.
Khtikian, Kent
Karjala, Zuzana
Isenstein, Arin L.
Fry, Bryan G.
Lewin, Matthew R.
Envenoming by a Marine Blood Worm (Glycera)
title Envenoming by a Marine Blood Worm (Glycera)
title_full Envenoming by a Marine Blood Worm (Glycera)
title_fullStr Envenoming by a Marine Blood Worm (Glycera)
title_full_unstemmed Envenoming by a Marine Blood Worm (Glycera)
title_short Envenoming by a Marine Blood Worm (Glycera)
title_sort envenoming by a marine blood worm (glycera)
topic Case Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9319062/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35878233
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins14070495
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