title: Action of babycurus-toxin 1 from the east African scorpion Babycurus centrurimorphus on the isolated cockroach giant axon.
abstract: A toxin named babycurus-toxin 1 (mol. wt 8191), from telson extracts of the scorpion Babycurus centrurimorphus, was found to depolarize the cockroach giant axon. It progressively blocked the evoked action potentials after a short period of limited repetitive activity and after 30 min of toxin action it became impossible to evoke responses to current stimulations. Voltage-clamp experiments on the sodium current indicated that the toxin in micromolar concentrations progressively decreased the transient inward peak sodium current, but also slowed the activation phase of this sodium current and maintained an inward current during the voltage pulses, which deactivated slowly. The toxin also induced in the insect axon a slowly activating-deactivating component of the sodium current. This suggests that the toxin modifies both activation and inactivation mechanisms of sodium channels. Thus there is some similarity in the electrophysiological effects between BcTx1 and the beta-toxins active on mammals.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurophysiology, CNRS EREA 120, Faculty of Medicine, University of Angers, France.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ben Khalifa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stankiewicz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pelhate
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Serrano-Hernandez
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Possani
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hinkel
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mebs
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000187:drug effects*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000187:drug effects; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D010526:Periplaneta; D012604:Scorpion Venoms / Q000737:chemistry*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015222:Sodium Channels / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D009498:Neurotoxins; D012604:Scorpion Venoms; D015222:Sodium Channels