Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are emerging as multipurpose therapeutic compounds for the treatment of several different syndromes involving peripheral and central nervous systems, muscular musculoskeletal disorders both in human veterinary medicine. Therefore, study BoNTs is rapidly developing identifying newly produced BoNT variants. Efforts should be made to clarify biological pharmacological...

The brain vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2) pumps monoamine neurotransmitters and Parkinsonism-inducing dopamine neurotoxins such as 1-methyl-4-phenyl-phenypyridinium (MPP+) from neuronal cytoplasm into synaptic vesicles, from which amphetamines cause their release. Amphetamines and MPP+ each also act at nonvesicular sites, providing current uncertainties about the contributions of vesicu...

Nicotine exerts its oncogenic effects through the binding to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and the activation of downstream pathways that block apoptosis and promote neo-angiogenesis. The nAChRs of the α7 subtype are present on a wide variety of cancer cells and their inhibition by cobra venom neurotoxins has been proposed in several articles and reviews as a potential innovative l...

Mitochondrial permeability transition pores represent a multiprotein complex that includes components of both inner and outer membrane. The pores regulate transport of ions and peptides in and out of mitochondria, and their regulation is associated with a general mechanism for maintaining Ca(2+) homeostasis in the cell and apoptosis. Various pathologic factors may induce a pathologic activation...

The roots from Aconitum sp. plants have long been used in Chinese herbal medicine for treating pain and various heart conditions. The principal component of Aconitum remedies is usually aconitine, a site 2 neurotoxin that may induce severe neurological symptoms and cardiovascular collapse. Some Aconitum species also contain lappaconitine, the structure of which is remarkably similar to that of ...

Despite Cnidaria (sea anemones, corals, jellyfish, and hydroids) being the oldest venomous animal lineage, structure-function relationships, phyletic distributions, and the molecular evolutionary regimes of toxins encoded by these intriguing animals are poorly understood. Hence, we have comprehensively elucidated the phylogenetic and molecular evolutionary histories of pharmacologically charact...