Abstract
Conus venoms from marine cone snails continue to provide novel bioactive components. Two new classes of conopeptide specifically block alpha(1)-adrenoceptors (rho-conopeptide) and noradrenaline transporters (chi-conopeptides). Both classes are small peptides with two disulfide bonds. Rho-conopeptide is structurally similar to alpha-conotoxins, which block nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, whereas the chi-conopeptides are unrelated to other conotoxins. Both types of conopeptides are non-competitive blockers. Because these peptides demonstrate greater selectivity than current drugs in clinical use, they could lead to the development of improved therapeutics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 201-203 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Trends in Pharmacological Sciences |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Early online date | 8 May 2002 |
| DOIs |
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| Publication status | Published - May 2002 |
Keywords
- adrenergic alpha-1 receptor antagonists
- amino acid sequence
- animals
- conotoxins
- humans
- molecular sequence data
- norepinephrine plasma membrane transport proteins
- symporters
