[In vivo and in vitro effects of peptide extracts from Amanita virosa]

Cyclic peptides from the deadly mushroom Amanita virosa has been separated by methanolic extraction and chromatography on Sephadex. Three groups of peptides have been obtained: virotoxins, amaninamide and phalloidin. Virotoxins has been separated in two fractions named virotoxins A and virotoxins B. We have studied the properties of these two fractions of F actin in vitro and on mice in vivo. Our results show that virotoxins A and B protect F actin in vitro against chaotropic ions, depolymerization by DNAse I or cytochalasin B and heat denaturation. Virotoxins A and B increase the rate of polymerization of F actin. Virotoxins A and B are toxic compounds which produce hemorrhagic necrosis of liver that have been observed in detail by electron microscopy. In general, our in vitro and in vivo results show that virotoxins exhibit the same effect as phalloidin on F actin.