title: State of the art in the studies on crotamine, a cell penetrating peptide from South American rattlesnake.
abstract: Animal venoms comprise a naturally selected cocktail of bioactive peptides/proteins and other molecules, each of which playing a defined role thanks to the highly specific interactions with diverse molecular targets found in the prey. Research focused on isolation, structural, and functional characterizations of novel natural biologics (bioactive peptides/proteins from natural sources) has a long way to go through from the basic science to clinical applications. Herein, we overview the structural and functional characteristics of the myoneurotoxin crotamine, firstly isolated from the South American rattlesnake venom. Crotamine is the first venom peptide classified as a natural cell penetrating and antimicrobial peptide (CPP and AMP) with a more pronounced antifungal activity. In contrast to other known natural CPPs and AMPs, crotamine demonstrates a wide spectrum of biological activities with potential biotechnological and therapeutic values. More recent studies have demonstrated the selective in vitro anticancer activity of crotamine. In vivo, using a murine melanoma model, it was shown that crotamine delays tumor implantation, inhibits tumor cells proliferation, and also increases the survival of mice engrafted with subcutaneous melanoma. The structural and functional properties and also the possible biotechnological applications of minimized molecules derived from crotamine are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Genética, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil, 1500 05503-900 São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kerkis
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Mirian A F
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Genética, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil, 1500 05503-900 São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alvaro R B
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Prieto da Silva
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Genética, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil, 1500 05503-900 São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Genética, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil, 1500 05503-900 São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Paulo Luiz
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: De Sá Júnior
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Genética, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil, 1500 05503-900 São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Andre J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Zaharenko
authors.affiliation: Labomar-Instituto de Ciências do Mar, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.
authors.forename: Gandhi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rádis-Baptista
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Genética, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brasil, 1500 05503-900 São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kerkis
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual da Amazônia (UEA) e Laboratório de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular, Centro de Biotecnologia da Amazônia (CBA), Manaus, AM, Brazil.
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamane
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D002460:Cell Line; D057846:Cell-Penetrating Peptides; D003435:Crotalid Venoms; D017839:Crotalus; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma; D051379:Mice; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D013020:South America
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D057846:Cell-Penetrating Peptides; D003435:Crotalid Venoms; C010563:crotamine