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Science 24 July 1998:
Vol. 281. no. 5376, pp. 575 - 578
DOI: 10.1126/science.281.5376.575
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Reports

Inactivation of a Serotonin-Gated Ion Channel by a Polypeptide Toxin from Marine Snails

Laura J. England, Julita Imperial, Richard Jacobsen, A. Grey Craig, Joseph Gulyas, Mateen Akhtar, Jean Rivier, David Julius, * Baldomero M. Olivera

The venom of predatory marine snails is a rich source of natural products that act on specific receptors and ion channels within the mammalian nervous system. A 41-amino acid peptide, sigma -conotoxin GVIIIA, was purified on the basis of its ability to inactivate the 5-HT3 receptor, an excitatory serotonin-gated ion channel. sigma -Conotoxin contains a brominated tryptophan residue, which may be important for peptide activity because the endogenous ligand for the 5-HT3 receptor is a hydroxylated derivative of tryptophan. sigma -Conotoxin inactivates the 5-HT3 receptor through competitive antagonism and is a highly selective inhibitor of this receptor. Serotonin receptors can now be included among the molecular targets of natural polypeptide neurotoxins.

L. J. England and D. Julius, Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143-0450, USA. J. Imperial, R. Jacobsen, B. M. Olivera, Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0840, USA. A. G. Craig, J. Gulyas, M. Akhtar, J. Rivier, Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: julius{at}socrates.ucsf.edu

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