Olivera B M, Hillyard D R, Marsh M, Yoshikami D
Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 84112, USA.
Trends Biotechnol. 1995 Oct;13(10):422-6. doi: 10.1016/S0167-7799(00)88996-9.
Many present-day drugs are derived from compounds that are natural products, a traditional source of which is fermentation broths of microorganisms. The venoms of cone snails are a new natural resource of peptides that may have a pharmaceutical potential equivalent to those from traditional sources, particularly for developing drugs that target cell-surface receptors or ion channels. In effect, cone snails have used a combinatorial library strategy to evolve their small, highly bioactive venom peptides. The methods by which the snails have generated thousands of peptides with remarkable specificity and high affinity for their targets may provide important lessons in designing combinatorial libraries for drug development.
许多现代药物都源自天然产物化合物，其传统来源是微生物发酵液。芋螺毒液是一种新的肽类天然资源，其药用潜力可能与传统来源的相当，尤其适用于开发针对细胞表面受体或离子通道的药物。实际上，芋螺采用了组合文库策略来进化其小的、高生物活性的毒液肽。芋螺产生数千种对其靶标具有显著特异性和高亲和力的肽的方法，可能会为设计用于药物开发的组合文库提供重要借鉴。
