Hubei Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Wuhan, China.
Peptides. 2010 Jan;31(1):22-6. doi: 10.1016/j.peptides.2009.10.008. Epub 2009 Oct 23.
Scorpion has an innovative venom gland, which is an important determinant in contributing to its successful survival for more than 400 million years. Scorpion venom contains a diversity of bioactive peptides, which represent a tremendous hitherto unexplored resource for use in drug design and development. Here, StCT1, a new antimicrobial peptide gene, was screened and isolated from the venomous gland cDNA library of the scorpion Scorpiops tibetanus. The full-length cDNA of StCT1 is 369 nucleotides encoding the precursor that contains a putative 24-residue signal peptide, a presumed 14-residue mature peptide, and an uncommon 37-residue acidic propeptide at the C-terminus. The minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the synthetic StCT1 peptide against Staphylococcus aureus and Micrococcus luteus were 12.5microg/ml and 100microg/ml, respectively. The MICs of StCT1 against clinical antibiotics-resistant bacterial strains, were 50-250microg/ml, 2-40 folds lower than those of penicillin. These results show that the antimicrobial peptide encoded by StCT1 gene from the venom of the scorpion S. tibetanus is a potential anti-infective polypeptide or lead compound, especially for treating antibiotics-resistant pathogens.
蝎子拥有创新的毒液腺，这是其成功生存超过 4 亿年的重要决定因素。蝎子毒液含有多种生物活性肽，这代表了一个巨大的、尚未开发的资源，可用于药物设计和开发。在这里，从西藏蝎子的毒腺 cDNA 文库中筛选并分离出一种新的抗菌肽基因 StCT1。StCT1 的全长 cDNA 为 369 个核苷酸，编码前体，其中包含一个假定的 24 个残基信号肽、一个假定的 14 个残基成熟肽和一个 C 末端不常见的 37 个残基酸性原肽。合成 StCT1 肽对金黄色葡萄球菌和藤黄微球菌的最小抑菌浓度（MIC）分别为 12.5μg/ml 和 100μg/ml。StCT1 对临床抗生素耐药菌的 MIC 值为 50-250μg/ml，比青霉素低 2-40 倍。这些结果表明，来自蝎子 S. tibetanus 毒液的 StCT1 基因编码的抗菌肽是一种有潜力的抗感染多肽或先导化合物，特别是用于治疗抗生素耐药性病原体。
