Conotoxins, in retrospect

摘要

It is now over 20 years since the first conotoxin was biochemically characterized, establishing for the first time that an active component of a Conns venom was a small, disulflde-rich peptide. This review is a retrospective that looks back at the last two decades of conotoxin research and provides a somewhat idiosyncratic personal history. In addition, we outline a few insights that have emerged, which provide a conceptual framework and technological platform that should make further exploration ofthe neuropharmacological resource which is the sum total of Conns venom peptides much more facile. It is now clear that there are potentially approx 50,000 different conotoxins present in the venoms of living species in the genus Conns (this may even bea conservative estimate) -- unquestionably, there is much more to be done.