Banks B E, Brown C, Burgess G M, Burnstock G, Claret M, Cocks T M, Jenkinson D H
Nature. 1979 Nov 22;282(5737):415-7. doi: 10.1038/282415a0.
Apamin is a neurotoxic polypeptide of known structure isolated from bee venom. Shuba and coworkers have recently shown that it abolishes the hyperpolarising action of externally-applied ATP on visceral smooth muscle (guinea pig stomach and taenia coli) as well as the hyperpolarisation (inhibitory junction potential) that follows stimulation of the non-adrenergic inhibitory nerve supply to these tissues. As it has been proposed that ATP is the neurotransmitter involved in the latter response, Vladimirova and Shuba tentatively concluded that apamin is a specific postsynaptic blocking agent of this non-adrenergic, possibly 'purinergic', inhibition. We have confirmed the important observation that nanomolar concentrations of apamin reduce inhibition by ATP and by non-adrenergic nerve stimulation, but further experiments suggest that, rather than acting as a specific blocker of ATP receptors, apamin inhibits the increase in potassium permeability caused by a number of agents, including ATP.
蜂毒明肽是一种结构已知的神经毒性多肽，从蜂毒中分离得到。舒巴及其同事最近发现，它能消除外源性ATP对内脏平滑肌（豚鼠胃和结肠带）的超极化作用，以及刺激这些组织的非肾上腺素能抑制性神经供应后出现的超极化（抑制性接头电位）。由于有人提出ATP是参与后一种反应的神经递质，弗拉迪米罗娃和舒巴初步得出结论，蜂毒明肽是这种非肾上腺素能、可能是“嘌呤能”抑制作用的特异性突触后阻断剂。我们证实了一个重要的观察结果，即纳摩尔浓度的蜂毒明肽会降低ATP和非肾上腺素能神经刺激引起的抑制作用，但进一步的实验表明，蜂毒明肽不是作为ATP受体的特异性阻断剂，而是抑制多种物质（包括ATP）引起的钾通透性增加。
