Snake and snail toxins acting on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors: fundamental aspects and medical applications

FEBS Letters

Tsetlin, V.I²  Hucho, F¹ 

[1] Institut für Chemie-Biochemie, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany;Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

关键词: Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor;    Snake toxin;    α-Neurotoxin;    α-Conotoxin;   

DOI  :  10.1016/S0014-5793(03)01454-6

学科分类：生物化学/生物物理

来源: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

【 摘 要 】

This review covers recent data on interactions of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChR) with snake venom proteins (α- and κ-neurotoxins, ‘weak’ toxins recently shown to act on AChRs), as well as with peptide α-conotoxins from Conus snails. Mutations of AChRs and toxins, X-ray/nuclear magnetic resonance structures of α-neurotoxin bound to AChR fragments, and the X-ray structure of the acetylcholine-binding protein were used by several groups to build models for the α-neurotoxin–AChR complexes. Application of snake toxins and α-conotoxins for pharmacological distinction of muscle, neuronal and neuronal-like AChR subtypes and for other medical purposes is briefly discussed.

【 授权许可】

Unknown