Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA.
Antioxid Redox Signal. 2011 Jan 1;14(1):65-76. doi: 10.1089/ars.2010.3458. Epub 2010 Oct 19.
Modification of α-conotoxin frameworks through cyclization via an oligopeptide linker has previously been shown as an effective strategy for improving in vivo stability. We have extended this strategy by investigating cyclic analogs of α-conotoxin AuIB, a selective α(3)β(4) nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) antagonist, to examine a range of oligopeptide linker lengths on the oxidative formation of disulfide bonds, activity at nAChRs, and stability to degradation by chymotrypsin. Upon nondirected random oxidation, the ribbon isomer formed preferentially with the globular isomer occurring as a minor by-product. Therefore, a regioselective disulfide bond forming strategy was used to prepare the cAuIB-2 globular isomer in high yield and purity. The cAuIB-2 globular isomer exhibited a threefold decrease in activity for the α(3)β(4) nAChR compared to wild-type-AuIB, although it was selective for α(3)β(4) over α(7) and α(4)β(2) subtypes. On the other hand, the cAuIB-2 ribbon isomer was shown to be inactive at all three nAChR subtypes. Nonetheless, all of the cyclic analogs were found to be significantly more stable to degradation by chymotrypsin than wild-type AuIB. As such, the cAuIB-2 globular isomer could constitute a useful probe for studying the role of the α(3)β(4) nAChR in a range of in vivo experimental paradigms.
通过寡肽连接子环化来修饰 α-芋螺毒素框架结构已被证明是提高体内稳定性的有效策略。我们通过研究 α-芋螺毒素 AuIB 的环状类似物扩展了这一策略,α-芋螺毒素 AuIB 是一种选择性 α(3)β(4)烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体 (nAChR) 拮抗剂,以研究不同长度的寡肽连接子对二硫键氧化形成、对 nAChR 的活性以及对糜蛋白酶降解的稳定性的影响。在非定向随机氧化时,优先形成带状异构体,而球状异构体则作为次要副产物出现。因此,采用区域选择性二硫键形成策略以高产率和高纯度制备 cAuIB-2 球状异构体。与野生型-AuIB 相比,cAuIB-2 球状异构体对 α(3)β(4)nAChR 的活性降低了三倍,尽管它对 α(3)β(4)亚型具有选择性,而对 α(7)和 α(4)β(2)亚型没有活性。另一方面,cAuIB-2 带状异构体对所有三种 nAChR 亚型均无活性。尽管如此,所有环状类似物在糜蛋白酶降解方面都比野生型 AuIB 显著更稳定。因此,cAuIB-2 球状异构体可能成为研究 α(3)β(4)nAChR 在一系列体内实验模型中作用的有用探针。