title: A monoclonal antibody which recognized the functional site of snake neurotoxins and which neutralizes all short-chain variants.
abstract: We isolated a neurotoxin-specific monoclonal antibody (Mab) which is capable of recognizing and neutralizing all short-chain toxin variants that have been tested, including those with widely divergent sequences. The epitope incorporates the three invariant residues Lys-27, Trp-29 and Lys-47 which form part of the site by which the toxins bind to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. To our knowledge, this is the first Mab which possesses the universal capacity of neutralizing all natural variants of a toxic protein.
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology*; D003039:Cobra Neurotoxin Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D003429:Cross Reactions; D004546:Elapid Venoms / Q000276:immunology*; D000939:Epitopes; D004870:Erabutoxins / Q000276:immunology*; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000276:immunology*; D009500:Neutralization Tests
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D003039:Cobra Neurotoxin Proteins; D004546:Elapid Venoms; D000939:Epitopes; D009498:Neurotoxins; D004870:Erabutoxins