title: Muscarinic toxins.
abstract: Muscarinic toxins isolated from the venom of Dendroaspis snakes may interact with a high affinity, large selectivity and various functional properties with muscarinic receptors. Therefore, these toxins are invaluable tools for studying the physiological role, molecular functioning and structural organization of the five subtypes of these G-Protein Coupled Receptors. We review the data on the most relevant results dealing with the isolation/identification, mode of action, structure/function and exploitation of these toxins and finally highlight the unresolved issues related to their pharmacological studies.
authors: CEA, Institute of Biology and Technology, Service d'Ingénierie Moléculaire des Protéines, Gif-sur-Yvette 91191, France. denis.servent@cea.fr
authors: Denis
authors: D
authors: Servent
authors: Guillaume
authors: G
authors: Blanchet
authors: Gilles
authors: G
authors: Mourier
authors: Catherine
authors: C
authors: Marquer
authors: Elodie
authors: E
authors: Marcon
authors: Carole
authors: C
authors: Fruchart-Gaillard
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D004546:Elapid Venoms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D017815:Elapidae; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011976:Receptors, Muscarinic / Q000187:drug effects*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D014118:Toxins, Biological / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D004546:Elapid Venoms; D011976:Receptors, Muscarinic; D014118:Toxins, Biological; D002118:Calcium