Snake and snail toxins acting on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors: fundamental aspects and medical applications

摘要

>This review covers recent data on interactions of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChR) with snake venom proteins (α- and κ-neurotoxins, ‘weak’ toxins recently shown to act on AChRs), as well as with peptide α-conotoxins from Conus snails. Mutations of AChRs and toxins, X-rayuclear magnetic resonance structures of α-neurotoxin bound to AChR fragments, and the X-ray structure of the acetylcholine-binding protein were used by several groups to build models for the α-neurotoxin–AChR complexes. Application of snake toxins and α-conotoxins for pharmacological distinction of muscle, neuronal and neuronal-like AChR subtypes and for other medical purposes is briefly discussed.