RK, the first scorpion peptide with dual disintegrin activity on α₁β₁ and α_vβ₃ integrins

Scorpion peptides are well known for their pharmaceutical potential on different targets. These include mainly the ion channels which were found to be highly expressed in many diseases, including cancer, auto-immune pathologies and Alzheimer. So far, however, the disintegrin activity had only been characterized for snake venom molecules. Herein, we present the first short peptide, purified from the venom of Buthus occitanus tunetanus, (termed RK) able to inhibit the cell adhesion of Glioblastoma, Melanoma and Rat pheochromocytoma to different extracellular matrix (ECM) receptors. Anti-integrin antibody assay suggests that RK interacts with both α₁β₁ and α_vβ₃ with a more pronounced effect for the former. The examination of the primary structure of RK suggests the involvement of two motifs: KSS, analogue to KTS which was characterized for α₁β₁ Snake venom disintegrins, and ECD, analogue to RGD which was found to be active on α_vβ₃. To assess their roles in the disintegrin activity of RK, we conducted a computational analysis. The molecular docking study shows that RK involves mainly two segments to interact with the α₁β₁ integrin, but the peptide does not implicate the KSS motif in the interaction. The molecular modeling study, suggests the key contribution of the ECD segment in the interaction with α_vβ₃ integrin.