From Toxins to Therapeutics
12 March 2010
"Our role as scientists is to find ways to exploit their potentially useful bioactivity for therapeutic and diagnostic applications"
Prof Manjunatha Kini, Department of Biological Sciences
USEFUL VENOM: A King Cobra being milked for its venom (Photo courtesy : Mr Peter Mirtschin, Managing Director of Venom Supplies Pty Ltd and Adjunct Research Fellow of the School of Pharmacy & Medical Sciences, University of South Australia) .
TOXIN RESEARCH: Prof Manjunatha Kini (right) and doctoral student Ms Amrita Roy with the cover of the Journal of Biological Chemistry
The team led by Prof Manjunatha Kini of the NUS Department of Biological Sciences has found Haditoxin, a novel protein in the venom of the King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), offers great potential as a lead compound for understanding and treating a variety of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases which include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, anxiety and addiction to nicotine. Their findings will be published online in the 12 March issue of the prestigious Journal of Biological Chemistry and has been selected as the "Paper of the Week".
"Molecules from venomous animals play an important role in advancing scientific discovery and leading to the development of useful drugs due to their ability to target a variety of physiological processes with unparalleled specificity and affinity. Our role as scientists is to find ways to exploit their potentially useful bioactivity for therapeutic and diagnostic applications," said Prof Kini, whose research areas lie in the structure-function relationships and mechanism of protein toxins.
Explaining what Haditoxin does, Prof Kini said that the protein blocks receptors in the brain, in particular, specific subtypes of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) which are involved in neurotransmission in humans, or the transmission of nerve impulse from nerve to nerve or from nerve to muscle.
Haditoxin, which acts as a ligand for nAChRs, may help to provide an insight into the interaction of these receptors with their ligands and the subsequent effect of this binding. Consequently, Haditoxin offers great potential as a lead compound for understanding the biological processes involved and for discovering drug to treat these diseases.
The NUS team collaborated with scientists from the School of Medical Science, Griffith University, Australia, and University of Geneva, Switzerland on this study. The research work is supported by grants from NUS and the Biomedical Research Council at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore.
To-date, Haditoxin is the third novel compound with therapeutic properties that the team has discovered from the venom of the King Cobra. The other two compounds are Ohanin and ß-Cardiotoxin, which were found to have important therapeutic applications for anxiety and hypertension, respectively. These two compounds are currently being studied to be developed as drugs for therapeutic application. Next up, Prof Kini will be looking at how Haditoxin influences behaviour.