Confirmation of these findings and new information about novel potential therapeutic peptides in Buthidae species has been recently reported by our group. Furthermore, construction of cDNA libraries allowed the screening of several random cDNA clones, proving to be a successful strategy for the identification of several putative NDBPs reported elsewhere. The determination of the transcriptomic profile of NDBPs provides GDC-0941 additional information about the post-translational processing and the evolutionary characteristics of such peptides. These approaches are proving to be important tools for taxonomy as well. Taken together, recent proteomic and transcriptomic analysis of scorpion venom and venom glands, have provided new data that have critically increased our knowledge about scorpion venom biology and on the cellular processes taking part on the highly specialized venom glands. Particular emphasis is made on novel components whose function, whether in the context of venom effects in susceptible animals or within the venom gland itself, has just started to be known. Mass fingerprinting studies have revealed that NDBPs constitute more than 30% of all peptides present within scorpion venoms. In spite of constituting a significant fraction of the total venom, this group of peptides has been poorly characterized when compared with DBPs that represent the majority of functionally characterized scorpion venom peptides reported in the literature. The importance of characterizing NDBPs is sustained by their biological and structural diversity associated to their multiple potential effects on cognate targets. The Buthidae family, to which poisonous scorpions belong, makes up more than 50% of the approximately 1700 scorpion species currently known. From approximately 800 Buthidae species only 34, are potentially dangerous to humans. Non-Buthidae species have been largely neglected by toxicological research. Recently it has been demonstrated that even neglected lineages of scorpions are a rich source of novel biochemical components, which have evolved over millions of years to target specific ion channels in prey animals, but also new NDBPS with significant implications in therapeutics. Non-Buthidae scorpions produce venoms with low or no toxic effects to mammals. The Vejovidae family is one of the non- Buthidae scorpion families that does not pose any risk for human health and which members can be localized in the North American subcontinent, mostly in Mexico. The Vaejovidae family is composed of 17 genera, including Smeringurus, Paruroctonus, Pseudouroctonus, Serradigitus, and Vaejovis, among others. This last genus, Vaejovis : 1836, C.L. Koch, is distributed from the southwestern United States to Guatemala, with the large majority of the 70 species inhabiting the Mexican territory. In accordance with the classification proposed by Sissom in 2010, the Vaejovis genus is subdivided in 5 groups: eusthenura, intrepidus, mexicanus, nitidulus and punctipalpi, plus a group classified as incertae sedis. Examples of species belonging to some of the groups are Vaejovis punctatus, Vaejovis intrepidus and Vaejovis subcristatus, Vaejovis mexicanus, among others. In scorpions of the Vaejovis genus, the venom contains lesser SAR131675 amounts of ion channel toxins and higher amounts of NDBPs. From two Mexican species belonging to the Vejovidae family, some NDBPs with therapeutic properties have been identified: Vejovine, with antibiotic activity against a broad spectrum of clinical isolates of bacteria from different genera ; Vm24, an immune-suppressive peptide selective to Kv1.3 potassium channels of human lymphocyte T cells ; VmCT1 and VmCT2, two antimicrobial peptides with a broad-spectrum activity against Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria ; and VsCT1 and VsCT2, two hemolytic peptides.