Chlorotoxin: Structure, activity, and potential uses in cancer therapy
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A High-throughput-compatible FRET-based Platform for Identification and Characterization of Botulinum Neurotoxin Light Chain Modulators
Published on: December 27, 2013
Paola G Ojeda1, Conan K Wang1, David J Craik1
1Institute for Molecular Bioscience, the University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.
Abstract:
Chlorotoxin is a disulfide-rich stable peptide from the venom of the Israeli scorpion Leiurus quinquestriatus, which has potential therapeutic applications in the treatment of cancer. Its ability to preferentially bind to tumor cells has been harnessed to develop an imaging agent to help visualize tumors during surgical resection. In addition, chlorotoxin has attracted interest as a vehicle to deliver anti-cancer drugs specifically to cancer cells. Given its interesting structural and biological properties, chlorotoxin also has the potential to be used in a variety of other biotechnology and biomedical applications. Here, we review the structure, activity and potential applications of chlorotoxin as a drug design scaffold.
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