Presynaptic and postsynaptic neurotoxins are proteins which act at the presynaptic and postsynaptic membrane. Correctly predicting presynaptic and postsynaptic neurotoxins will provide important clues for drug-target discovery and drug design. In this study, we developed a theoretical method to discriminate presynaptic neurotoxins from postsynaptic neurotoxins. A strict and objective benchmark ...

Botulism is a neuroparalytic disease caused by neurotoxin produced from the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are among the most potent known biological toxins and have an estimated human median lethal dose (LD50) in the nanogram/kilogram range. Botulinum toxins have historically been employed as biological weapons (BW) through state-sponsored programs in Japan,...

The present study investigated the ability of a number of presynaptic snake neurotoxins (snake beta-neurotoxins) to produce nerve-evoked train-of-four fade, tetanic fade and endplate potential run-down during the development of neuromuscular blockade in the isolated mouse phrenic-hemidiaphragm nerve-muscle preparation. All the snake beta-neurotoxins tested, with the exception of notexin, produc...

The ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis GL was tested for its applicability to the detection of botulinum neurotoxins. Botulinum neurotoxins attack different proteins of the SNARE-complex, which is involved in fusion processes of the cellular membrane traffic. The exocytosis of enzymes and the phagocytosis of germs include several presumptive SNARE-dependent pathways within T. pyriformis. Acid phosp...

Introduction: In a serious brain disorder like Alzheimer's disease, the levels of acetylcholine (Ach) drop significantly. The gradual death of cholinergic brain cells leads to a profound loss of memory and learning ability. Acetylcholine is the chemical messenger that sends messages from one neuron to another in the area of the brain used for memory. Many of the current medications act to enhan...

Snake venoms are a mixture of pharmacologically active proteins and polypeptides that have led to the development of molecular probes and therapeutic agents. Here, we describe the structural and functional characterization of a novel neurotoxin, haditoxin, from the venom of Ophiophagus hannah (King cobra). Haditoxin exhibited novel pharmacology with antagonism toward muscle (alphabetagammadelta...

The venoms of both Elapidae and Hydrophiidae are mixtures of proteins some of which are blockers of the rucotinic acetylcholine receptor (1). They are classified into shortneurotoxins (60 to 62 residues), long-neurotoxins (70 to 74 residues) and x-neurotoxins (66 residues) (2). Some peptides are classified as neurotoxin-homologs with unknown pharmacological activity (1). Here we present the fir...

Short- and long-chain alpha-neurotoxins from snake venoms are potent blockers of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Short alpha-neurotoxins consist of 60-62 amino acid residues and include 4 disulfide bridges, whereas long alpha-neurotoxins have 66-75 residues and 5 disulfides. The spatial structure of these toxins is built by three loops, I-III "fingers," confined by four disulfide br...