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Pharmacological screening technologies for venom peptide discovery
Jutty Rajan Prashanth1, Nojod Hasaballah1, Irina Vetter2
1Centre for Pain Research, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, 306 Carmody Rd, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld 4072, Australia.
Neuropharmacology
|April 6, 2017
Summary
Venomous animals offer a rich source of potent compounds for drug discovery. This study outlines a pipeline for efficiently identifying and developing these venom-derived peptides as novel therapeutics.
Area of Science:
- Biochemistry
- Pharmacology
- Drug Discovery
Background:
- Venomous animals are evolutionarily successful, utilizing potent venoms to incapacitate prey and deter predators.
- Venom components exhibit high selectivity and potency, targeting ion channels, GPCRs, transporters, and enzymes, making them valuable pharmacological tools and drug leads.
Purpose of the Study:
- To discuss practical aspects of establishing a pipeline for venom peptide drug discovery.
- To emphasize pharmacology and pharmacological screening approaches in this process.
Main Methods:
- Review of plate-based pharmacological screening approaches, including high-throughput electrophysiology and fluorescence-based assays.
- Discussion on combining miniaturized screening techniques with sequence-based discovery methods.
- Integration of advanced proteomics, mass spectrometry, chromatography, synthesis, and expression techniques.
Main Results:
- Plate-based screening accelerates venom-derived drug discovery.
- Combining screening with sequence-based approaches enhances venom peptide discovery.
- Traditional activity-guided fractionation is time-consuming and resource-intensive.
Conclusions:
- Developing an efficient pipeline is crucial for venom peptide drug discovery.
- Advanced screening and sequence-based methods are key to improving the identification of venom-derived drug leads.
- Venom peptides hold significant potential as pharmacological tools and therapeutic agents.