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Updated: Nov 8, 2025

Local Application of Drugs to Study Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Function in Mouse Brain Slices
Published on: October 29, 2012
Engineered Conotoxin Differentially Blocks and Discriminates Rat and Human α7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors
Shuai Wang1, Xiaopeng Zhu1,2, Manqi Zhangsun1
1Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory for Marine Drugs of Haikou, School of Life and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
Abstract:
The α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) is present in the central nervous system and plays an important role in cognitive function and memory. α-Conotoxin LvIB, identified from genomic DNA of Conus lividus, its three isomers and four globular isomer analogues were synthesized and screened at a wide range of nAChR subtypes. One of the analogues, amidated [Q1G,ΔR14]LvIB, was found to be a potent blocker of rat α7 nAChRs. Importantly, it differentiates between α7 nAChRs of human (IC50: 1570 nM) and rat (IC50: 97 nM). Substitutions between rat and human α7 nAChRs at three key mutation sites revealed that no single mutant could completely change the activity profile of amidated [Q1G,ΔR14]LvIB. Rather, we found that the combined influence of Gln141, Asn184, and Lys186 determines the α7 nAChR species specificity of this peptide. This engineered α4/4 conotoxin has potential applications as a template for designing ligands to selectively block human α7 nAChRs.
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