To the Editor:
The National Library of Medicine's (NLM's) Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET®) databases cover many areas of toxicology and related contents.Citation1 TOXNET's Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB) is a factual file concerning chemical and physical properties, safety and handling, human and non-human toxicity, pharmacology, environmental fate, regulatory data, and methods of detection for almost 6,000 substances. Since it is important for toxicologists, physicians, and others to be able to access information online about various venoms and antivenoms, recent enhancements to HSDB include the addition of North American poisonous scorpion, snake, and spider venoms and antivenoms. The following venoms and antivenoms are new to HSDB, and other additional snake venoms and antivenoms will be added in the future:
North American Agkistrodon snake venoms for the two species in this genus,
Centruroides immune F(ab)2 (North American scorpion antivenom),
Crotalidae polyvalent immune Fab (North American pit viper antivenom),
North American Latrodectus (widow spider venom), and
North American Loxosceles (recluse spider venom).
Detailed information about the sources, geographic domain, toxicology (both human and non-human), therapeutic indications, and warnings of these specific antivenoms and venoms is provided in each venom and antivenom record. Also, the sources of the information along with Web links to the source documents when they are available online are included.
HSDB can be accessed online for online searches of scorpion, snake, and spider antivenoms and venoms. Also, TOXNET Mobile has been optimized for mobile devices and provides what you need, and when and where you need it to access HSDB and several of the other TOXNET databases.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no declarations of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
References
- National Library of Medicine: Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET®) Fact Sheet, accessed November 21, 2014 http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/toxnetfs.html
- National Library of Medicine: Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB) Fact Sheet, accessed November 21, 2014 www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/hsdbfs/html
- National Library of Medicine: Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), accessed November 21, 2014 http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?HSDB
- National Library of Medicine: TOXNET Mobile, accessed November 21, 2014 http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/pda/