1Shemyakin–Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
2Institut für Chemie-Biochemie, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany
Tóm tắt
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‐ray/nuclear 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.
