title: Neurotoxins from venoms of the Hymenoptera--twenty-five years of research in Amsterdam.
abstract: 1. In co-operation with colleagues in Europe, Japan and the U.S.A., 25 years of research in Amsterdam have provided new views on the way some hymenopteran insects incapacitate their prey by a diversity of neurotoxins, resulting in block of synaptic transmission in CNS or neuromuscular junctions, or affecting voltage dependent phenomena in nerve and muscle fibers. 2. Nicotinic synaptic transmission in the insect CNS is irreversibly blocked at the presynaptic side by kinins, or reversibly and postsynaptically blocked by philanthotoxins. 3. Glutamatergic neuromuscular transmission is reversibly blocked by philanthotoxins at the pre- and/or postsynaptic side. 4. A presynaptic block of neuromuscular transmission was found with the Microbracon toxins. 5. An irreversible deactivation, without paralysis, of cockroaches is caused by a sting of Ampulex compressa into the suboesophageal ganglion. 6. Poneratoxin, a 25 amino acid residue polypeptide, isolated from an ant venom, is the first described hymenopteran neurotoxin affecting excitability of nerve and muscle fibres by changing the kinetics of the voltage-dependent sodium channel.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Piek
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001180:Arthropod Venoms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D007705:Kinins / Q000633:toxicity; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009426:Netherlands; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000633:toxicity*; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents / Q000378:metabolism; D013045:Species Specificity; D009435:Synaptic Transmission
chemical_list: D001180:Arthropod Venoms; D007705:Kinins; D009498:Neurotoxins; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents