Location of the analgesic domain in Scorpion toxin BmK AGAP by mutagenesis of disulfide bridges.
An increasing number of analgesic peptides have been found in the tail toxicyst, but there has been little research into their analgesic domains. Where are the analgesic domains in a conservative betaalphabetabeta topology conformation of the analgesic peptides? We have carried out research to address this question. On account of the importance of disulfide bonds in the study of protein structure, the conformational stability, catalytic activity and folding, and site-directed mutagenesis in disulfide bridges have been used to look for the analgesic domain in a mature antitumor-analgesic peptide from the venom of the Chinese scorpion Buthus martensii Karsch (BmK AGAP). The mouse-twisting assay was used to examine the analgesic activity of 12 mutants, in which two mutants (C22S, C46S) and (C16S, C36S), exhibited lower relative activity. Following the conformational analysis, one domain, called the "core domain", was found to be the key to the analgesic activity.
Ma
Rui
R
School of Life Science and Bio-pharmaceutics, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, P.O. Box 17, 103. Wenhua Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang, Liaoning Province 110016, PR China.
Cui
Yong
Y
Zhou
Ying
Y
Bao
Yue-Mei
YM
Yang
Wen-Yao
WY
Liu
Yan-Feng
YF
Wu
Chun-Fu
CF
Zhang
Jing-Hai
JH
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000700:Analgesics / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D001681:Biological Assay; D004220:Disulfides / Q000737:chemistry; D051379:Mice; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012604:Scorpion Venoms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology
D000700:Analgesics; D004220:Disulfides; D012604:Scorpion Venoms; C477804:antitumor-analgesic peptide, Buthus martensii