蝎毒素药用价值研究进展

Research progress on medicinal values of scorpion venom components

传统中药采用全蝎及其毒液来治疗多种疑难杂症已有千年的历史,其主要药用活性成分来自蝎毒液的多肽和酶,特别是含量丰富的神经毒素多肽(俗称蝎毒素)。随着现代研究的深入,越来越多的毒液多肽成分逐渐从不同蝎种中分离出来,为新的药物设计与开发提供了众多的候选多肽分子。在神经、免疫、感染、心血管、肿瘤等方面疾病中,蝎毒液及其多肽成分都具有良好的治疗效果。此外,由于独特的结构与功能,蝎毒素也常作为分子骨架用于开发新的特异性药物。该文有针对性地阐述了具有良好药用前景的蝎毒素药理活性及其作用机制,为相关药物的进一步开发提供数据基础。

For thousands of years,scorpions and their venoms have been applied in traditional medicine in China to treat a variety of difficult miscellaneous diseases. The venom is a complex mixture of bioactive molecules,such as peptides and proteins（ e. g. neurotoxins）. Among them,neurotoxins（ named scorpion toxins） are the most important bioactive components. Up to now,more and more characterized venom components have been isolated from different scorpions,providing numerous candidate molecules for drug design and development. Many investigations have shown the potent effects of venom or its components against the nervous,immune,infection,cardiovascular and neoplastic diseases. Moreover,the scorpion toxins could be used as molecular backbone to develop new specific drugs based on their unique structures and functions. In this review,we focus on the medicinal values and the possible mechanisms of scorpion toxins with promising medicinal prospect against the relative diseases,providing the data basis for further development of relative drugs.