Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
Toxins (Basel). 2013 May 21;5(5):1043-50. doi: 10.3390/toxins5051043.
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.
在过去的几十年中，圆锥蜗牛（Conidae）的毒液得到了广泛的研究，但到目前为止，来自 Toxoglossa 亚目的其他成员（如 Terebridae 和 Turridae 超科）的毒液则受到较少关注。在这里，我们报告了来自 Terebridae 超科的三个物种的毒液和腺体提取物的作用。通过 2 电极电压钳技术，在表达大鼠神经元（α3β2、α3β4、α4β2、α4β4、α7）和肌肉亚型（α1β1γδ）的 Xenopus 卵母细胞上以及表达钾（Kv1.2 和 Kv1.3）和钠通道（Nav1.2、1.3、1.4、1.6）的卵母细胞上测试了腺体提取物。结果表明，这些提取物对几乎所有测试的 nAChR 都表现出非常高的抑制活性，尤其是对 α7 亚型，表明存在来自 Conus 物种毒液的 A-超家族肽。相比之下，对测试的钾和钠通道没有观察到任何影响。Terebridae 蜗牛的毒液可能为新型生物活性肽提供了另一个来源。
