Prof Lizelle Piater

Professor
Name: Lizelle Piater
Location: C2 Lab 422 Auckland Park Kingsway Campus
Biochemistry Staff  Staff Members

Contact Details:
Tel: +27 (0) 11 559 2403

Email: lpiater@uj.ac.za

About Prof Lizelle Piater

Envenoming is currently a seriously neglected health issue, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where anti-venoms are not as readily available or reliable as would be believed. In this regard, the World Health Organization estimates that there are approximately 2.5 – 5.4 million snakebites p.a., resulting in roughly 50% envenomation. Of these result in ~ 100 000 deaths p.a., and this figure is roughly a mere third of that relating to secondary injuries including amputations and permanent disabilities. Numbers pertaining to envenoming in Africa account about 22% (580 000) of the global figure – which only relate to reported cases, with 32 000 deaths alone in Sub-Saharan Africa, and not inclusive of the countless numbers of victims who suffer permanent disabilities. As such, our research focusses on the proteomic and biochemical analyses of African venom from various snake species to identify inter- and intra-species profile variations, and subsequently provide greater insight into the manufacturing of anti-venoms. Furthermore, another important point regarding snake venom which ought to be noted, is the fact that not all of the venom composition is toxic. From literature it has been reported that some derivatives thereof can be harnessed and utilised in biomedical applications, in particular anticancer therapeutics.

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Recent Publications:

1. Offor, B.C., Mhlongo, M.I., Steenkamp, P.A., Dubery, I.A. and Piater, L.A. (2022) Untargeted Metabolomics Profiling of Arabidopsis WT, lbr-2-2and bak1-4 Mutants Following Treatment with Two LPS Chemotypes. Metabolites, 12, 379. (Impact factor: 4.9)
2. Mhlongo, M.I., Piater, L.A. and Dubery, I.A. (2022) Profiling of Volatile Organic Compounds from Four Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria by SPME–GC–MS: A Metabolomics Study. Metabolites, 12, 763. (Impact factor: 4.9)
3. Offor, B.C., Mhlongo, M.I., Dubery, I.A. and Piater, L.A. (2022) Plasma Membrane-Associated Proteins Identified in Arabidopsis Wild Type, lbr2-2 and bak1-4 Mutants Treated with LPSs from Pseudomonas syringae and Xanthomonas campestris. Membranes, 12, 606. (Impact factor: 4.562)
4. Offor, B.C., Muller, B. and Piater, L.A. (2022) A Review of the Proteomic Profiling of African Viperidae and Elapidae Snake Venoms and Their Antivenom Neutralisation. Toxins, 14, (11) 723. (Impact factor: 5.075)
5. Da Camara, N., Dubery, I.A. and Piater, L.A. (2023) Proteome Analysis of Nicotiana tabacumCells following Isonitrosoacetophenone Treatment Reveals Defence-Related Responses Associated with Priming. Plants, 12, (5) 1137. (Impact factor: 4.658)
6. Zeiss, D.R., Molinaro, A. Steenkamp, P.A., Silipo, A., Piater, L.A., Di Lorenzo, F. and Dubery, I.A. (2023) Lipopolysaccharids from Ralstonia solanacearum induce a broad metabolomic response in Solanum lycopersicum. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 10:1232233. (Impact factor: 6.113)
7. Hamany Djande, C. Y., Tugizimana, F., Steenlamp, P.A., Piater, L.A. and Dubery, I.A (2023) Metabolomic Reconfiguration in Primed Barley (Hordeum vulgare) Plants in Response to Pyrenophora teresteres Infection. Metabolites, 13, (9) 997. (Impact factor: 5.581)
8. Offor, B.C and Piater, L.A. (2024) A comparison of the venom proteomes and potential therapeutics of 3 African naja Toxicon, 245, 107792. (Impact factor: 3.033)
9. Offor, B.C and Piater, L.A. (2023) Snake venom toxins: Potential anticancer therapeutics. Journal of Applied Toxicology, 44(5), 666-685. (Impact factor: 446)
10. Mabunda, I.G., Zinyemba, N.K., Pillay, S., Offor, B.C., Muller, B. and Piater, L.A. (2024) The geographical distribution of scorpions, implication of venom toxins, envenomation, and potential therapeutics in Southern and Northern Africa. Toxicology Research, 13(4), tfae118, Open Access In Press. (Impact factor: 3)