A recent evaluation of the lethal potencies of ammodytoxins

Chip electrophoretic separation of highly homologous ammodytoxin isoforms: three neurotoxic phospholipases A2 of Vipera ammodytes ammodytes venom

Ammodytoxins (Atxs), a group of Ca(2+) -dependent neurotoxic phospholipases A2 of Vipera ammodytes ammodytes venom, are mainly responsible for venom toxicity. Within the Atx group, LD50 values between three isoforms, A, B, and C are differing with AtxA exhibiting an LD50 value by an order of magnitude lower (more toxic) than the other two isoforms. This difference in toxicity justifies the necessity to prepare suitable antibodies and thus isoform separation to characterize the Atx content of Vipera ammodytes ammodytes venom is of importance. However, a high homology between the three Atx isoforms (differences in only two, respectively, three residues within the last 18 amino acids at the C-terminus, total length 122 residues) hindered the successful separation of isoforms to date. As the investigated phospholipases A2 were reported to exhibit differences in pI values, we concentrate with the current work on the separation of Atx isoforms after fluorescence labeling via chip electrophoresis on a commercially available instrument to build the basis for a fast and easy to handle screening method. In the course of our work, we were able to show that samples of AtxA, AtxB, and AtxC declared to be homogenous by standard analytical techniques consisted indeed of more than one isoform of which the relative amounts were calculated by using the newly developed method.

Crystallographic characterization of functional sites of crotoxin and ammodytoxin, potent β-neurotoxins from Viperidae venom

This review will focus on a description of the three-dimensional structures of two β-neurotoxins, the monomeric PLA(2) ammodytoxin from Vipera ammodytes ammodytes, and heterodimeric crotoxin from Crotalus durissus terrificus, and a detailed structural analysis of their multiple functional sites. We have recently determined at high resolution the crystal structures of two natural isoforms of ammodytoxin (AtxA and AtxC) (Saul et al., 2010) which exhibit different toxicity profiles and different anticoagulant properties. Comparative structural analysis of these two PLA(2) isoforms, which differ only by two amino acid residues, allowed us to detect local conformational changes and delineate the role of critical residues in the anticoagulant and neurotoxic functions of these PLA(2) (Saul et al., 2010). We have also determined, at 1.35Å resolution, the crystal structure of heterodimeric crotoxin (Faure et al., 2011). The three-dimensional structure of crotoxin revealed details of the binding interface between its acidic (CA) and basic (CB) subunits and allowed us to identify key residues involved in the stability and toxicity of this potent heterodimeric β-neurotoxin (Faure et al., 2011). The precise spatial orientation of the three covalently linked polypeptide chains in the mature CA subunit complexed with CB helps us to understand the role played by critical residues of the CA subunit in the increased toxicity of the crotoxin complex. Since the CA subunit is a natural inhibitor of the catalytic and anticoagulant activities of CB, identification of the CA-CB binding interface describes residues involved in this inhibition. We propose future research directions based on knowledge of the recently reported 3D structures of crotoxin and ammodytoxin.