Abstract
Peptide neurotoxins found in animal venoms have gained great interest in the field of neurotransmission. As they are high affinity ligands for calcium, potassium and sodium channels, they have become useful tools for studying channel structure and activity. Peptide neurotoxins represent the clinical potential of ion-channel modulators across several therapeutic fields, especially in developing new strategies for treatment of ion channel-related diseases. The aim of this review is to overview the latest updates in the domain of peptide neurotoxins that affect voltage-gated calcium channels, with a special focus on ω-agatoxins.
Highlights
Numerous peptides found in animal venom have become invaluable tools for the study of the physiological role and structure of the channels and receptors
The main usefulness of peptide toxins concerns their high specificity towards the corresponding voltage-gated calcium channels; this feature allows a distinction to be drawn from calcium currents, and is, in some cases, the only available pharmacological criterion of difference
Studies which were performed in order to find new insecticides [63] revealed that the substances present in the venom of Agelenopsis aperta alter the properties of voltage-sensitive calcium channels [64]
Summary
Numerous peptides found in animal venom have become invaluable tools for the study of the physiological role and structure of the channels and receptors. Regarding the relatively small size of peptide toxins, these can be obtained by chemical synthesis or recombinant methods, which represent an advantage in comparison to extraction from large quantities of venom which is often hardly accessible. Understanding the importance and impact of ion channels as therapeutic targets may lead to the discovery of a new class of medications This explains the particular interest in clinical application of toxins; some of them or their synthetic analogues are in clinical phases of trial. The main usefulness of peptide toxins concerns their high specificity towards the corresponding voltage-gated calcium channels; this feature allows a distinction to be drawn from calcium currents, and is, in some cases, the only available pharmacological criterion of difference
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