Discovery and characterization of NaV modulatory venom peptides

Abstract

Voltage-gated sodium channels (Na V ) are integral membrane proteins that are responsible for the increase in sodium permeability that initiates and propagates the rising phase of action potentials, carrying electrical signals along nerve fibers and through excitable cells. Na V channels play a diverse role in neurophysiology and neurotransmission, as well as serving as molecular targets for several groups of neurotoxins that bind to different receptor sites and alter voltage-dependent activation, inactivation and conductance. There are nine Na V channel isoforms so far discovered, each of which display distinct functional profiles and tissue-specific expression patterns. The modulation of specific isoforms for therapeutic purposes has become an important research objective for the treatment of conductance diseases exhibiting phenotypes of chronic pain, epilepsy, myotonia, seizure, and cardiac arrhythmia. However, because of the high sequence similarity and structural homology between Na V channel isoforms, many current therapeutics that target Na V channels -the vast majority of which are small molecules -lack specificity between isoforms, or even other voltage-gated ion channels. The current push for greater selectivity while maintaining a relevant degree of potency has led the focus away from small molecules and towards the discovery and development of peptidic ligands for therapeutic use. Venom derived peptides have proven to be naturally potent and selective bioactive molecules, exhibiting inherent secondary structures that add stability through the formation of disulfide bonds. Organisms such as cone snails and spiders have evolved venom for the purpose of prey capture and defense, therefore many of the components exhibit paralytic qualities and specifically target Na V channels. Much of the discovery process has focused on screening crude venoms for a particular function and then isolating the molecule responsible for that function using assay guided purification.The first section of this thesis describes the development of a cell-based, high-throughput functional assay for the detection of Na V modulating venom peptides in crude venom. This assay was successfully implemented and resulted in the isolation and sequencing of MVIA from Conus magus. Initial results and sequence similarity placed MVIA into the δ-conotoxin family, a poorly described class of peptides that inhibits fast inactivation. However, multiple solid-phase synthesis and bacterial recombinant expression methods were unsuccessful in producing enough of the extremely hydrophobic δ-MVIA for further characterization. As no more C. magus crude venom was available, this project was left until optimized methods of production for highly hydrophobic peptides could be developed.ii An optimized method of bacterial recombinant expression was successful in producing large yields of another venom peptide, β/δ-TRTX-Pre1a, isolated from the spider Psalmopoeus reduncus. The same recombinant expression method was also used to produce uniformly label...