Can venoms be used in neuroprotection?

Neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders are prevalent and disabling, hence posing a high burden to affected individuals, society, and health care systems. The growing trend of the aging population and estimation of the increased rate of neurodegenerative disorders in the next decades highlights serious attention toward disorders that are becoming one of the greatest threats to public health. Preventive and treatment strategies are expected to tackle more than alleviating symptoms and to shift toward disease modification strategies, including neuroprotection for degeneration and promotion of regeneration. Next, pharmaceutical compounds are warranted to offer high selectivity, and specificity, with an optimal effect and desirable safety profile. Most of the currently available drugs for targeting neurological disorders are suboptimal, and their use accompanies unwanted effects that reduce the quality of life of affected patients. A large community of scientists are keen of identification and investigation of venom-based compounds with neuroprotective properties. Venoms are known to be a potent source of bioactive compounds that offer a wide range of pharmacological properties. Gradual improvement in omic techniques together with global network analysis has stimulated great progress in the identification of new lead compounds from venoms, enabling and accelerating venom-based exploratory, proof of concept, and drug discovery studies. The collective aim is to offer novel alternative or adjuvant venom-based drugs to tackle unmet needs in treating neurological disorders. This chapter presents examples of venoms tested for their neuroprotection properties with some potential underlying mechanisms.