title: The insecticidal potential of scorpion beta-toxins.
abstract: Voltage-gated sodium channels are a major target for toxins and insecticides due to their central role in excitability, but due to the conservation of these channels in Animalia most insecticides do not distinguish between those of insects and mammals, thereby imposing risks to humans and livestock. Evidently, as long as modern agriculture depends heavily on the use of insecticides there is a great need for new substances capable of differentiating between sodium channel subtypes. Such substances exist in venomous animals, but ways for their exploitation have not yet been developed due to problems associated with manufacturing, degradation, and delivery to the target channels. Engineering of plants for expression of anti-insect toxins or use of natural vectors that express toxins near their target site (e.g. baculoviruses) are still problematic and raise public concern. In this problematic reality a rational approach might be to learn from nature how to design highly selective anti-insect compounds preferably in the form of peptidomimetics. This is a complex task that requires the elucidation of the face of interaction between insect-selective toxins and their sodium channel receptor sites. This review delineates current progress in: (i) elucidation of the bioactive surfaces of scorpion beta-toxins, especially the excitatory and depressant groups, which show high preference for insects and bind insect sodium channels with high affinity; (ii) studies of the mode of interaction of scorpion beta-toxins with receptor site-4 on voltage-gated sodium channels; and (iii) clarification of channel elements that constitute receptor site-4. This information may be useful in future attempts to mimic the bioactive surface of the toxins for the design of anti-insect selective peptidomimetics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Sciences, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv 69978, Tel-Aviv, Israel. mamgur@post.tau.ac.il
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gurevitz
authors.forename: Izhar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Karbat
authors.forename: Lior
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Nitza
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ilan
authors.forename: Roy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kahn
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Turkov
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stankiewicz
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Stühmer
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Dalia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gordon
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D010572:Pest Control, Biological; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012604:Scorpion Venoms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D012605:Scorpions / Q000502:physiology*; D015222:Sodium Channels / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C115530:Bj-xtrIT toxin; C498553:Css4 protein, Centruroides suffusus suffusus; D019476:Insect Proteins; C076349:LqhIT2 insect toxin; D009498:Neurotoxins; D012604:Scorpion Venoms; D015222:Sodium Channels