The investigators have shown that the venom of the Eastern green mamba from Africa, Dendroaspis angusticeps, is an excellent source for toxins that distinguish the m1 and m4 subtypes of muscarinic receptors, and have preliminary evidence for the presence of toxins specific for m2 receptors. The anti-muscarinic and toxins are present only in trace amounts. They therefore hypothesize that the toxins of most interest can be best identified by a combination of protein purification and recombinant DNA approaches, and obtained most easily in useful quantities by expression of the corresponding cDNA clones.
| Liang, J; Gutierrez-Ford, C; Potter, L T (2001) Sustained unilateral blockade of rat striatal M(1) muscarinic receptors with m1-toxin1 in vivo. Brain Res 921:211-8 |
| Krajewski, J L; Dickerson, I M; Potter, L T (2001) Site-directed mutagenesis of m1-toxin1: two amino acids responsible for stable toxin binding to M(1) muscarinic receptors. Mol Pharmacol 60:725-31 |
| Santiago, M P; Potter, L T (2001) Biotinylated m4-toxin demonstrates more M4 muscarinic receptor protein on direct than indirect striatal projection neurons. Brain Res 894:12-20 |
| Carsi, J M; Valentine, H H; Potter, L T (1999) m2-toxin: A selective ligand for M2 muscarinic receptors. Mol Pharmacol 56:933-7 |
| Liang, J S; Carsi-Gabrenas, J; Krajewski, J L et al. (1996) Anti-muscarinic toxins from Dendroaspis angusticeps. Toxicon 34:1257-67 |
