Mariottini Gian L, Bonello Gaido, Giacco Elisabetta, Pane Luigi
Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences, University of Genova, Italy.
Cent Nerv Syst Agents Med Chem. 2015;15(2):74-80. doi: 10.2174/1871524915666150309141900.
Cnidarians are numbered among the most venomous organisms. Their venoms are contained in intracellular capsules, nematocysts, which inject the content into preys/attackers through an eversion system resembling a syringe needle. Several cnidarian venoms have activity against the nervous system, being neurotoxic, or affect other systems whose functioning is under nerve control. Besides direct damage to nerve cells, the activity on ionic conductance, blockade of neuromuscular junctions, and influence on action potentials and on voltage-gated channels have been described. Therefore, cnidarians can be a useful source of nervous system-targeted compounds which could have, in perspective, a role in the therapy of some nervous system diseases. Following this idea, this article aims to review the existing data about the neuroactive properties of cnidarian venoms and their possible usefulness in tackling some neurological diseases as well as neurodegenerative age-related diseases whose incidence is expected to raise in the next decades owing to the increase of life expectancy.
刺胞动物被列为毒性最强的生物之一。它们的毒液包含在细胞内的胶囊——刺丝囊中，刺丝囊通过类似注射器针头的外翻系统将内容物注入猎物/攻击者体内。几种刺胞动物毒液对神经系统有活性，具有神经毒性，或影响其他受神经控制的系统的功能。除了对神经细胞的直接损伤外，还描述了其对离子电导的作用、对神经肌肉接头的阻断以及对动作电位和电压门控通道的影响。因此，刺胞动物可能是针对神经系统的化合物的有用来源，从长远来看，这些化合物可能在某些神经系统疾病的治疗中发挥作用。基于这一想法，本文旨在综述有关刺胞动物毒液神经活性特性的现有数据，以及它们在治疗某些神经系统疾病以及与年龄相关的神经退行性疾病方面的潜在用途，由于预期寿命的增加，这些疾病的发病率在未来几十年有望上升。
