title: Venomous secretions from marine snails of the Terebridae family target acetylcholine receptors.
abstract: Venoms from cone snails (Conidae) have been extensively studied during the last decades, but those from other members of the suborder Toxoglossa, such as of Terebridae and Turridae superfamilies attracted less interest so far. Here, we report the effects of venom and gland extracts from three species of the superfamily Terebridae. By 2-electrode voltage-clamp technique the gland extracts were tested on Xenopus oocytes expressing nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) of rat neuronal (α3β2, α3β4, α4β2, α4β4, α7) and muscle subtypes (α1β1γδ), and expressing potassium (Kv1.2 and Kv1.3) and sodium channels (Nav1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6). The extracts were shown to exhibit remarkably high inhibitory activities on almost all nAChRs tested, in particular on the α7 subtype suggesting the presence of peptides of the A-superfamily from the venom of Conus species. In contrast, no effects on the potassium and sodium channels tested were observed. The venoms of terebrid snails may offer an additional source of novel biologically active peptides.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany. yvonne.kendel@web.de
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kendel
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Melaun
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kurz
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nicke
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peigneur
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tytgat
authors.forename: Cora
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wunder
authors.forename: Dietrich
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mebs
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kauferstein
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008978:Mollusk Venoms / Q000633:toxicity*; D009865:Oocytes / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D024642:Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic / Q000502:physiology*; D012908:Snails; D061566:Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels / Q000502:physiology; D014982:Xenopus laevis
chemical_list: D008978:Mollusk Venoms; D024642:Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic; D061566:Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels