title: Characterization of a novel proteinous toxin from sea anemone Actineria villosa.
abstract: The sea anemone Actineria villosa expresses a lethal protein toxin. We isolated a novel 120-kDa protein, Avt120, from partially purified toxin and found it to possess extremely strong lethal activity. The 3,453-bp Avt120 gene translates to a 995-amino acid protein. The 50% lethal dose (LD(50)) of purified Avt120 in mice was 85.17 ng. Among several tested cell lines, Colo205 cells were most sensitive to Avt120: 50% of them were damaged by 38.4 ng/mL Avt120. Avt120 exerted ATP degradation activity (10 μmol ATP h(-1) mg(-1)), which was strongly inhibited by ganglioside GM1 to decrease the cytotoxicity of Avt120.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, Sakamoto, Japan. uechi@nagasaki-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Gen-Ichiro
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Uechi
authors.forename: Hiromu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toma
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arakawa
authors.forename: Yoshiya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sato
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D003064:Cnidarian Venoms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism / Q000633:toxicity*; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005732:Gangliosides / Q000378:metabolism; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D018922:HL-60 Cells; D006801:Humans; D007928:Lethal Dose 50; D051379:Mice; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D012615:Sea Anemones / Q000737:chemistry*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014709:Vero Cells
chemical_list: D003064:Cnidarian Venoms; D005732:Gangliosides; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate