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©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Biol Chem. Jan 7, 2019; 10(1): 17-27
Published online Jan 7, 2019. doi: 10.4331/wjbc.v10.i1.17
Published online Jan 7, 2019. doi: 10.4331/wjbc.v10.i1.17
Last decade update for three-finger toxins: Newly emerging structures and biological activities
Yuri N Utkin, Laboratory of Molecular Toxinology, Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow 117997, Russia
Author contributions: Utkin YN performed all activities related to the intellectual preparation and writing of this paper.
Supported by The Russian Foundation for Basic Research , No. 18-04-01075 and 18-54-00031 .
Conflict-of-interest statement: Utkin YN declares no conflict of interest related to this publication.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yuri N Utkin, DSc, PhD, Professor, Laboratory of Molecular Toxinology, Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Miklukho-Maklaya 16/10, V-437, Moscow 117997, Russia. utkin@mx.ibch.ru
Telephone: +7-495-3366522 Fax: +7-495-3366522
Received: September 1, 2018
Peer-review started: September 3, 2018
First decision: October 26, 2018
Revised: November 20, 2018
Accepted: December 5, 2018
Article in press: December 5, 2018
Published online: January 7, 2019
Peer-review started: September 3, 2018
First decision: October 26, 2018
Revised: November 20, 2018
Accepted: December 5, 2018
Article in press: December 5, 2018
Published online: January 7, 2019
Core Tip
Core tip: The three-finger toxins (TFTs) of snake venoms are principal to and the most toxic components of elapid venoms. Over 700 TFT amino acid sequences are listed in the UniProt Knowledgebase currently, with new members added constantly. The past decade has also seen multitudinous new discoveries, including structural variations in TFTs (i.e. disulfide-bound dimers), new types of biological activities for the well-known TFTs (e.g., α-bungarotoxin’s inhibition of ionotropic receptors of γ-aminobutyric acid), and other new, unexpected activities for the TFTs (i.e. interaction with interleukin or insulin receptors and activation of sperm motility). This minireview provides an up-to-date overview of these data.