Meucin-49, a multifunctional scorpion venom peptide with bactericidal synergy with neurotoxins

Amino Acids
Bin GaoShunyi Zhu

Abstract

Besides key roles in prey capture and predator defense, scorpion venom also functions as internal immune agents protecting the venom gland from infection and external immune agents cleaning saprophytic microbes from their own body surfaces. However, antimicrobials (typically antimicrobial peptides, AMPs) in the venom often exist in low abundance that might exclude their immune role alone, leaving an open question with regard to their in vivo biological function. Here, we report the bactericidal activity of seven peptides isolated from the scorpion Mesobuthus eupeus venom, including one classical α-helical AMP and five ion channel-targeted neurotoxins. This AMP of 49 amino acids (named Meucin-49) is a multifunctional molecule that displays a wide-spectrum and highly potent activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria with strong hemotoxicity on scorpion's predators (i.e., mammals, lizards, and birds) and high insecticidal activity. Although the neurotoxins targeting voltage-gated sodium (Nav) and/or large conductance calcium-activated potassium (BK) channels showed only marginal activity towards several species of bacteria, they were capable of significantly potentiating the bactericidal potency of Meucin-49. This o...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 16, 2020·Biomedicines·Shirin AhmadiAndreas H Laustsen
Dec 20, 2020·Toxicon : Official Journal of the International Society on Toxinology·Masahiro MiyashitaHisashi Miyagawa
Jun 26, 2020·Toxicon : Official Journal of the International Society on Toxinology·Allanny Alves FurtadoMatheus de Freitas Fernandes-Pedrosa
Dec 21, 2021·EMBO Molecular Medicine·Shunyi ZhuJan Tytgat

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
X-ray
circular dichroism
scanning electron microscopy

Software Mentioned

pClamp
ClustalX
SPSS
DeepView
MEGA
GraphPad Prism
TASSAR

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