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Pei S, Wang N, Mei Z, Zhangsun D, Craik DJ, McIntosh JM, Zhu X, Luo S. Conotoxins Targeting Voltage-Gated Sodium Ion Channels. Pharmacol Rev 2024; 76:828-845. [PMID: 38914468 PMCID: PMC11331937 DOI: 10.1124/pharmrev.123.000923] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2023] [Revised: 06/17/2024] [Accepted: 06/18/2024] [Indexed: 06/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Voltage-gated sodium (NaV) channels are intimately involved in the generation and transmission of action potentials, and dysfunction of these channels may contribute to nervous system diseases, such as epilepsy, neuropathic pain, psychosis, autism, and cardiac arrhythmia. Many venom peptides selectively act on NaV channels. These include conotoxins, which are neurotoxins secreted by cone snails for prey capture or self-defense but which are also valuable pharmacological tools for the identification and/or treatment of human diseases. Typically, conotoxins contain two or three disulfide bonds, and these internal crossbraces contribute to conotoxins having compact, well defined structures and high stability. Of the conotoxins containing three disulfide bonds, some selectively target mammalian NaV channels and can block, stimulate, or modulate these channels. Such conotoxins have great potential to serve as pharmacological tools for studying the functions and characteristics of NaV channels or as drug leads for neurologic diseases related to NaV channels. Accordingly, discovering or designing conotoxins targeting NaV channels with high potency and selectivity is important. The amino acid sequences, disulfide bond connectivity, and three-dimensional structures are key factors that affect the biological activity of conotoxins, and targeted synthetic modifications of conotoxins can greatly improve their activity and selectivity. This review examines NaV channel-targeted conotoxins, focusing on their structures, activities, and designed modifications, with a view toward expanding their applications. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: NaV channels are crucial in various neurologic diseases. Some conotoxins selectively target NaV channels, causing either blockade or activation, thus enabling their use as pharmacological tools for studying the channels' characteristics and functions. Conotoxins also have promising potential to be developed as drug leads. The disulfide bonds in these peptides are important for stabilizing their structures, thus leading to enhanced specificity and potency. Together, conotoxins targeting NaV channels have both immediate research value and promising future application prospects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shengrong Pei
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Special Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Guangxi University, Nanning, China (S.P., N.W., Z.M., D.Z., X.Z., S.L.); Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, China (D.Z., S.L.); Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (D.J.C.); Departments of Biology and Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.); and George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.)
| | - Nan Wang
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Special Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Guangxi University, Nanning, China (S.P., N.W., Z.M., D.Z., X.Z., S.L.); Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, China (D.Z., S.L.); Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (D.J.C.); Departments of Biology and Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.); and George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.)
| | - Zaoli Mei
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Special Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Guangxi University, Nanning, China (S.P., N.W., Z.M., D.Z., X.Z., S.L.); Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, China (D.Z., S.L.); Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (D.J.C.); Departments of Biology and Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.); and George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.)
| | - Dongting Zhangsun
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Special Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Guangxi University, Nanning, China (S.P., N.W., Z.M., D.Z., X.Z., S.L.); Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, China (D.Z., S.L.); Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (D.J.C.); Departments of Biology and Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.); and George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.)
| | - David J Craik
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Special Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Guangxi University, Nanning, China (S.P., N.W., Z.M., D.Z., X.Z., S.L.); Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, China (D.Z., S.L.); Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (D.J.C.); Departments of Biology and Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.); and George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.)
| | - J Michael McIntosh
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Special Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Guangxi University, Nanning, China (S.P., N.W., Z.M., D.Z., X.Z., S.L.); Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, China (D.Z., S.L.); Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (D.J.C.); Departments of Biology and Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.); and George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.)
| | - Xiaopeng Zhu
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Special Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Guangxi University, Nanning, China (S.P., N.W., Z.M., D.Z., X.Z., S.L.); Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, China (D.Z., S.L.); Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (D.J.C.); Departments of Biology and Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.); and George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.)
| | - Sulan Luo
- Guangxi Key Laboratory of Special Biomedicine, School of Medicine, Guangxi University, Nanning, China (S.P., N.W., Z.M., D.Z., X.Z., S.L.); Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Hainan University, Haikou, China (D.Z., S.L.); Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (D.J.C.); Departments of Biology and Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.); and George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah (J.M.M.)
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Huang Y, Peng C, Yi Y, Gao B, Shi Q. A Transcriptomic Survey of Ion Channel-Based Conotoxins in the Chinese Tubular Cone Snail (Conus betulinus). Mar Drugs 2017; 15:md15070228. [PMID: 28718820 PMCID: PMC5532670 DOI: 10.3390/md15070228] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2017] [Revised: 07/10/2017] [Accepted: 07/13/2017] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Conotoxins in the venom of cone snails (Conus spp.) are a mixture of active peptides that work as blockers, agonists, antagonists, or inactivators of various ion channels. Recently we reported a high-throughput method to identify 215 conotoxin transcripts from the Chinese tubular cone snail, C. betulinus. Here, based on the previous datasets of four transcriptomes from three venom ducts and one venom bulb, we explored ion channel-based conotoxins and predicted their related ion channel receptors. Homologous analysis was also performed for the most abundant ion channel protein, voltage-gated potassium (Kv; with Kv1.1 as the representative), and the most studied ion channel receptor, nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR; with α2-nAChR as the representative), in different animals. Our transcriptomic survey demonstrated that ion channel-based conotoxins and related ion channel proteins/receptors transcribe differentially between the venom duct and the venom bulb. In addition, we observed that putative κ-conotoxins were the most common conotoxins with the highest transcription levels in the examined C. betulinus. Furthermore, Kv1.1 and α2-nAChR were conserved in their functional domains of deduced protein sequences, suggesting similar effects of conotoxins via the ion channels in various species, including human beings. In a word, our present work suggests a high-throughput way to develop conotoxins as potential drugs for treatment of ion channel-associated human diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yu Huang
- BGI Education Center, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518083, China.
- Shenzhen Key Lab of Marine Genomics, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Molecular Breeding in Marine Economic Animals, BGI Academy of Marine Sciences, BGI Marine, BGI, Shenzhen 518083, China.
| | - Chao Peng
- Shenzhen Key Lab of Marine Genomics, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Molecular Breeding in Marine Economic Animals, BGI Academy of Marine Sciences, BGI Marine, BGI, Shenzhen 518083, China.
| | - Yunhai Yi
- BGI Education Center, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518083, China.
- Shenzhen Key Lab of Marine Genomics, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Molecular Breeding in Marine Economic Animals, BGI Academy of Marine Sciences, BGI Marine, BGI, Shenzhen 518083, China.
| | - Bingmiao Gao
- Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory of Research and Development of Tropical Medicinal Plants, Hainan Medical University, Haikou 571199, China.
| | - Qiong Shi
- BGI Education Center, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518083, China.
- Shenzhen Key Lab of Marine Genomics, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Molecular Breeding in Marine Economic Animals, BGI Academy of Marine Sciences, BGI Marine, BGI, Shenzhen 518083, China.
- Laboratory of Aquatic Genomics, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
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