title: Inhibition of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subtypes by alpha-Conotoxin GID and analogues.
abstract: alpha-Conotoxins are small disulfide-rich peptides from the venom of the Conus species that target the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR). They are valuable pharmacological tools and also have potential therapeutic applications particularly for the treatment of chronic pain. alpha-Conotoxin GID is isolated from the venom of Conus geographus and has an unusual N-terminal tail sequence that has been shown to be important for binding to the alpha4beta2 subtype of the nAChR. To date, only four conotoxins that inhibit the alpha4beta2 subtype have been characterized, but they are of considerable interest as it is the most abundant nAChR subtype in the mammalian brain and has been implicated in a range of diseases. In this study, analysis of alanine-scan and truncation mutants of GID reveals that a conserved proline in alpha-conotoxins is important for activity at the alpha7, alpha3beta2, and alpha4beta2 subtypes. Although the proline residue was the most critical residue for activity at the alpha3beta2 subtype, Asp(3), Arg(12), and Asn(14) are also critical at the alpha7 subtype. Interestingly, very few of the mutations tested retained activity at the alpha4beta2 subtype indicating a tightly defined binding site. This lack of tolerance to sequence variation may explain the lack of selective ligands discovered for the alpha4beta2 subtype to date. Overall, our findings contribute to the understanding of the structure-activity relationships of alpha-conotoxins and may be beneficial for the ongoing attempts to exploit modulators of the neuronal nAChRs as therapeutic agents.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia.
authors.forename: Emma L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Millard
authors.forename: Simon T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Nevin
authors.forename: Marion L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Loughnan
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nicke
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Paul F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Alewood
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Craik
authors.forename: Norelle L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Daly
mesh_terms: D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D020916:Conotoxins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D052078:Conus Snail; D020125:Mutation, Missense; D018733:Nicotinic Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D014981:Xenopus
chemical_list: D020916:Conotoxins; D018733:Nicotinic Antagonists; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic