title: Small efficient cell-penetrating peptides derived from scorpion toxin maurocalcine.
abstract: Maurocalcine is the first demonstrated example of an animal toxin peptide with efficient cell penetration properties. Although it is a highly competitive cell-penetrating peptide (CPP), its relatively large size of 33 amino acids and the presence of three internal disulfide bridges may hamper its development for in vitro and in vivo applications. Here, we demonstrate that several efficient CPPs can be derived from maurocalcine by replacing Cys residues by isosteric 2-aminobutyric acid residues and sequence truncation down to peptides of up to 9 residues in length. A surprising finding is that all of the truncated maurocalcine analogues possessed cell penetration properties, indicating that the maurocalcine is a highly specialized CPP. Careful examination of the cell penetration properties of the truncated analogues indicates that several maurocalcine-derived peptides should be of great interest for cell delivery applications where peptide size matters.
authors.affiliation: INSERM U836, Grenoble Neuroscience Institute, Site Santé La Tronche, Chemin Fortuné Ferrini, BP 170, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France; Université Joseph Fourier, 38041 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Cathy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poillot
authors.affiliation: INSERM U836, Grenoble Neuroscience Institute, Site Santé La Tronche, Chemin Fortuné Ferrini, BP 170, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France; Université Joseph Fourier, 38041 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Hicham
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bichraoui
authors.affiliation: INSERM U836, Grenoble Neuroscience Institute, Site Santé La Tronche, Chemin Fortuné Ferrini, BP 170, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France; Université Joseph Fourier, 38041 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tisseyre
authors.affiliation: INSERM U836, Grenoble Neuroscience Institute, Site Santé La Tronche, Chemin Fortuné Ferrini, BP 170, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France; Université Joseph Fourier, 38041 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Eloi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bahemberae
authors.affiliation: INSERM UMR1097, Luminy, 13288 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Andreotti
authors.affiliation: INSERM UMR1097, Luminy, 13288 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Marc
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Sabatier
authors.affiliation: INSERM U836, Grenoble Neuroscience Institute, Site Santé La Tronche, Chemin Fortuné Ferrini, BP 170, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France; Université Joseph Fourier, 38041 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ronjat
authors.affiliation: INSERM U836, Grenoble Neuroscience Institute, Site Santé La Tronche, Chemin Fortuné Ferrini, BP 170, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France; Université Joseph Fourier, 38041 Grenoble, France; Smartox Biotechnologies, Biopolis, 5 Avenue du Grand Sablon, 38700 La Tronche, France. Electronic address: michel.dewaard@ujf-grenoble.fr.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Waard
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016466:CHO Cells; D057846:Cell-Penetrating Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D012604:Scorpion Venoms / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D057846:Cell-Penetrating Peptides; D012604:Scorpion Venoms; C406406:maurocalcine