“Conus venom peptides and their molecular targets: Using pharmaconomics and neuroethology as a framework for discovery”

项目概要/摘要 锥螺毒液中数百种不同的生物活性成分已经证明 在过去具有非凡的生物医学潜力，包括作为FDA批准的药物开发。然而，在这方面， 它们的发现和表征通常受到可获得的少量毒液的限制。 本实验室开发了一种结合选择性药理学的钙显像平台 （“星座药理学”），当与转录组学和 蛋白质组学分析和电生理学（我们称之为药理学的集成平台） 改变了关于发现和表征新型毒液成分的景观。使用 药物组学的一个目标是将个体的发现和生物化学表征紧密结合起来， 毒液成分，并阐明其生物学基础的分子和细胞机制 活动药理学方法还揭示了单个成分如何影响生理学， 系统和整个动物水平。我们将利用从生物活性毒液的特性中获得的见解 的组成部分，以合理化的物种特异性行为和神经行为学的锥形蜗牛和它的鱼类猎物。 这些新的工具应该允许前所未有的速度发现新的生物活性锥螺毒液 与其分子靶点的阐明紧密相关的组分。 虽然该项目的重点是毒液肽及其分子靶点， 药理学方法可用于阐明任何药物的生理学相关分子靶标。 天然产物将天然产物的巨大化学多样性与其同源大分子联系起来 受体应该大大扩大天然产物作为基础研究中药理学工具的使用， 作为它们的治疗和其他生物医学应用。

Project Summary/Abstract The hundreds of different bioactive components in the venoms of cone snails have demonstrated extraordinary biomedical potential in the past, including development as an FDA-approved drug. However, their discovery and characterization is generally limited by the small amounts of venom that are accessible. Our laboratory has developed a calcium-imaging platform combined with selective pharmacology (“Constellation Pharmacology”), that when combined with recent technical advances in transcriptomic and proteomic analysis and electrophysiology (an integrated platform that we call Pharmaconomics) completely changes the landscape with respect to discovery and characterization of novel venom components. Using pharmaconomics, one goal is to tightly couple the discovery and biochemical characterization of individual venom components with the elucidation of the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie their biological activity. The pharmaconomics approach also uncovers how individual components affect physiology at the system’s and whole animal level. We will use the insights gained from the characterization of bioactive venom components to rationalize the species-specific behavior and neuroethology of the cone snail and it’s fish prey. These new tools should allow an unprecedented rate of discovery of novel bioactive cone snail venom components tightly linked to the elucidation of their molecular targets. Although the focus of this project is on venom peptides and their molecular targets, the pharmaconomics approach can be used for elucidating the physiologically-relevant molecular target of any natural product. Linking the vast chemical diversity of natural products to their cognate macromolecular receptors should greatly expand the use of natural products as pharmacological tools in basic research, as well as their therapeutic and other biomedical applications.