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[email protected] 4 Mini-Reviews in Organic Chemistry, 2014, 11, 4-14 Snake Venom Proteins: Development into Antimicrobial and Wound Healing Agents 1,2 3 4 5 Ramar Perumal Samy *, Jayapal Manikandan , Gautam Sethi , Octavio L. Franco , Josiah C. Okonkwo6, Bradley G. Stiles7,#, Vincent T.K. Chow1, Ponnampalam Gopalakrishnakone2 and Mohammed Al Qahtani3 1Infectious Diseases Programme, Department of Microbiology, 2Venom and Toxin Research Programme, Department of Anatomy, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore - 117597; 3Center of Excellence in Genomic Medicine Research, King Abdulaziz University, PO Box 80216, Jeddah 21589, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 4Department of Pharmacology, Clinical Research Centre, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, National University Health System (NUHS), Singapore – 117597; 5Universidade Católica de Brasília, Centro de Análises Proteômicas e Bioquímicas, Pós-Graduação em Ciências Genômicas e Biotecnologia UCB, Brasília-DF, Brazil; 6Department of Animal Science and Technology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, PMB 5025 Awka, Anambra, Nigeria; 7Integrated Toxicology Division, US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Maryland 21702-5011, USA; #Department of Biology, Wilson College, 1015 Philadelphia Avenue, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 17201, USA Abstract: Infectious diseases are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, accounting for approximately 50% of all deaths in tropical countries and as much as 20% of deaths in the USA. The emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains makes the risk of these infections even more threatening and an important public health problem thereby increasing need of new agents for fighting pathogens. In this review, the remarkable antibacterial properties possessed by various snake venoms (Crotalide, Elapidae, and Viperidae families) were discussed and in particular phospholipase A2s (PLA2s) that have emerged from various studies as potential in the last few years.