Animal Toxins Acting on Voltage-Gated Potassium Channels

• Published in: Current pharmaceutical design Vol. 14; no. 24; pp. 2503 - 2518
• Main Authors: Mouhat, Stéphanie, Andreotti, Nicolas, Jouirou, Besma, Sabatier, Jean-Marc
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United Arab Emirates Bentham Science Publishers Ltd 01.08.2008
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Araneae; Drug Design; Humans; Models, Molecular; Molecular Sequence Data; Peptides - isolation & purification; Peptides - pharmacology; Peptides - therapeutic use; Potassium Channel Blockers - isolation & purification; Potassium Channel Blockers - pharmacology; Potassium Channel Blockers - therapeutic use; Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated - genetics; Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated - metabolism; Potassium Channels, Voltage-Gated - physiology; Protein Conformation; Sequence Alignment; Venoms - analysis

Animal venoms are rich natural sources of bioactive compounds, including peptide toxins acting on the various types of ion channels, i.e. K+, Na+, Cl- and Ca2+. Among K+ channel-acting toxins, those selective for voltage-gated K+ (Kv) channels are widely represented and have been isolated from the v...