Snake and snail toxins acting on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors: fundamental aspects and medical applications.
This review covers recent data on interactions of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChR) with snake venom proteins (alpha- and kappa-neurotoxins, 'weak' toxins recently shown to act on AChRs), as well as with peptide alpha-conotoxins from Conus snails. Mutations of AChRs and toxins, X-ray/nuclear magnetic resonance structures of alpha-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 alpha-neurotoxin-AChR complexes. Application of snake toxins and alpha-conotoxins for pharmacological distinction of muscle, neuronal and neuronal-like AChR subtypes and for other medical purposes is briefly discussed.
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Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. vits@ibch.ru
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D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008978:Mollusk Venoms / Q000633:toxicity*; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000633:toxicity; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic / Q000187:drug effects*; D012908:Snails; D012910:Snake Venoms / Q000633:toxicity*
D008978:Mollusk Venoms; D009498:Neurotoxins; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic; D012910:Snake Venoms