海葵神经毒素研究进展

Development of Sea Anemone Neorotoxins

过去30多年的研究表明,海葵毒液中富含多肽或蛋白类生物毒素活性物质,分子量从3000到80000Da不等。这些毒素可以特异地与某些离子通道或细胞膜受体相结合,从而影响生物的某些生理功能。按照它们功能的不同,可以将海葵毒素大致分为两大类:神经毒素和溶细胞素。由于海葵神经毒素对它们的作用位点具有高度的特异性和亲和性,使得它们成为神经生理学和药理学研究的一种重要工具。就海葵毒素的类型、结构特征、生物活性、应用状况及开发前景的新进展进行综述,以期对同类研究些微启迪。

During the past thirty years,sea anemones turned out to be important producer of biologically highly active substances of peptide and protein toxins with molecular weight from 3 000 to 80 000Da.These toxins can specific interact with ion channels or some receptors of the cell membrane,and have effect on physiology function.Based on their functional characteristics,sea anemone toxins have been classified into two classes：neurotoxins and pore-forming toxins（or cytolysins）.Because of their high specificity and aflfinity to action sites,they become very important tools in the research on neurophysiology and pharmacology.This review focuses on the classification,structure,bioactivity and application prospects of the sea anemone neurotoxins recently,which would give some enlightenment to the similar research.