Patent Application: US-51655007-A

Abstract:
polypeptides derived from ophiophagus hannah are disclosed together with their use in the treatment of disease , disorder or pathological condition in a patient in need of treatment . the polypeptides disclosed are functionally characterised by their ability to reduce the mammalian heart rate and / or their β - antagonist activity .

Description:
specific details of the best mode contemplated by the inventors for carrying out the invention are set forth below , by way of example . it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without limitation to these specific details . in an effort to exploit the rich miscellany of snake venoms , we constructed a partial cdna library using mrna extracted from ophiophagus hannah venom gland tissue and identified five genes coding for proteins belonging to the 3ftx family . we report the identification , purification and characterization of one of these novel proteins , β - cardiotoxin from the venom of o . hannah . this protein differs from classical cardiotoxins in their structure as well as function . this is the first report of an exogenous protein targeting the β - adrenergic receptor ( ar ) system causing a marked reduction in heart rates in whole animals as well as isolated perfused rat hearts . thus , we named this novel member of the 3ftx family as β - cardiotoxin . we also describe the identification of a unique folding intermediate of β - cardiotoxin and its implications in protein folding . ophiophagus hannah venom glands were frozen in liquid nitrogen immediately after dissection and kept in − 80 ° c . until use . the reagents and kits used in the cdna library construction and screenings were as follows : restriction endonucleases ( new england biolabs ®, beverly , mass . ), pgemteasy vector ( promega , madison , wis . ), rneasy ® mini kit and qlaprep ® miniprep kit ( qiagen gmbh , hilden , germany ), smart ™ race cdna amplification kit ( clontech laboratories inc ., palo alto , calif . ), abi prism ® bigdye ™ terminator cycle sequencing ready reaction kit ( version 3 . 0 ) ( pe - applied biosystems , foster city , calif .) and luria bertani broth and agar ( q . biogene , irvine , calif .). lyophilized o . hannah venom was obtained from mr . duncan macrae ( bali , indonesia ). all chemicals were purchased from sigma - aldrich except the following : reagents for edman degradation n - terminal sequencing ( applied biosystems , foster city , calif . ), and acetonitrile ( merck kgaa , darmstadt , germany ). superdex 30 hiload ( 16 / 60 ) column and jupiter c18 ( 5μ , 300 å , 10 mm × 250 mm ) were purchased from amersham biosciences ( uppsala , sweden ) and phenomenex ( torrance , calif . ), respectively . water was purified using a milliq system ( millipore , billerica , mass .). all chemical reagents used were of the highest purity available . swiss albino male mice (˜ 20 g ) were used for the in vivo toxicity study . male sprague - dawley ( sd ) rats were used for electrocardiogram ( ecg ) monitoring ( 3 - 4 weeks old , ˜ 80 - 100 g ) and the langendorff isolated perfused heart experiments ( 8 weeks old , ˜ 250 g ). animals were acquired from the university laboratory animal center ( lac ) and were acclimatized to the animal holding unit surroundings for at least 3 days prior to the experiments . animals were kept under standard conditions with food and water available ad lib . all animal experiments were conducted according to the protocol ( 776 / 05a ) approved by the institutional animal care and use committee ( iacuc ) of the national university of singapore . total rna was isolated from o . hannah venom gland using rneasy ® mini kit . for each extraction , 30 mg venom gland tissue was first pulverized in liquid nitrogen using a cooled mortar and pestle and further homogenized for 20 to 30 s using a heidolph diax 600 homogenizer ( schwabach , germany ) in the presence of 600 μl buffer rlt . the integrity of the rna extracted was examined by denaturing agarose gel electrophoresis . the 5 ′- race ready cdna was obtained using a smart ™ race cdna amplification kit from clontech . the bd smart ii ™ a oligonucleotide and an oligo ( dt ) primer supplied with the kit were used for this purpose . the double stranded cdna for cloning was obtained using the long - up and oligo ( dt ) primers provided in the kit . the double stranded cdna was cloned into pgemt - easy vector system using the ta cloning approach and the plasmids were introduced into competent e . coli dh5α cells by heat shock transformation . transformed clones were selected on a plate containing iptg and x - gal by bluewhite selection . plasmids were extracted from overnight cultures using qiaprep ® miniprep kit , digested using ecori and fractionated on a 1 % agarose gel to confirm the presence of the insert . plasmids having the inserts were sequenced separately using t7 and sp6 primers and the full - length sequences were assembled and analyzed . o . hannah crude venom ( 100 mg in 1 ml of milliq water ) was loaded onto a superdex 30 ( 16 / 60 ) gel filtration column that was equilibrated with 50 mm tris - hcl buffer ( ph 7 . 4 ) and eluted with the same buffer using an akta purifier system ( amersham biosciences , uppsala , sweden ). the eluted samples were pooled into eight fractions . these were further sub - fractionated by reverse phase - high performance liquid chromatography ( rp - hplc ) using a jupiter c18 ( 5μ , 300 å , 10 mm × 250 mm ) column that was equilibrated with 0 . 1 % trifluoroacetic acid ( tfa ) and the proteins eluted with a linear gradient of 80 % acetonitrile in 0 . 1 % tfa . the fractions were collected and directly injected into an api - 300 liquid chromatography / tandem mass spectrometry system ( perkinelmer life sciences ) for mass determination . fractions showing the expected molecular mass were pooled and lyophilized . the mass and homogeneity of the novel protein was determined by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry ( esi - ms ) using an api - 300 liquid chromatography / tandem mass spectrometry system ( perkinelmer life sciences ). rp - hplc fractions were directly used for the analysis . ion spray , orifice and ring voltages were set at 4600 , 50 and 350 v , respectively . nitrogen was used as the nebulizer and curtain gas . a shimadzu lc - load pump was used for solvent delivery ( 40 % acetonitrile in 0 . 1 % formic acid ) at a flow rate of 40 μl / min . biomultiview software ( perkinelmer life sciences ) was used to analyze and deconvolute the raw mass data . n - terminal sequencing of the native protein was performed by automated edman degradation using a perkinelmer applied biosystems 494 pulsed - liquid phase protein sequencer ( procise ) with an on - line 785a phenlythiohydantion ( pth )- derivative analyzer . the pth - derivatized amino acids were then sequentially identified by mapping the respective separation profiles with the standard chromatogram . far - uv cd spectra ( 260 - 190 nm ) were recorded using a jasco j - 810 spectropolarimeter ( jasco corporation , tokyo , japan ). all measurements were carried out at room temperature using a 0 . 1 cm path length capped cuvette . the instrument optics and cuvette chamber were continuously flushed with 30 l of nitrogen / min before and during the recording of the spectra . the spectra were recorded using a scanning speed of 50 nm / min , a resolution of 0 . 1 nm and a bandwidth of 1 nm . a total of three scans were recorded and averaged for each spectrum , and the baseline was subtracted . all samples were dissolved in milliq water . a jasco j - 810 spectropolarimeter connected to a grant ltd6g water bath controlled by jasco ptc - 423s was used for this study . all recording parameters were the same as mentioned above . the temperature range was from 5 ° c . to 95 ° c . with a pitch of 10 ° c . far - uv cd spectrum ( 260 to 190 nm ) and near - uv spectrum ( 350 to 250 nm ) were recorded after each 10 ° c . increase . the cd was also continuously monitored at 203 , 222 and 280 nm with a data pitch of 0 . 1 ° c . and a bandwidth of 1 nm . the temperature slope used for the study was 5 ° c ./ min . the protein was dissolved in 200 μl of 0 . 9 % nacl ( braun , malaysia ) and administered through the intra - peritoneal ( i . p .) route for the in vivo toxicity study in mice . intra - tail vein ( i . t . v .) administration was done in the ecg monitoring study in rats . the various protein doses were dissolved in 200 μl of 0 . 9 % nacl solution and injected into the tail vein using a 27 g ½ needle ( becton dickinson , franklin lakes , n . j .) held at an angle of about 10 ° to the tail . the infusion was made very slowly and at a steady rate . after purification of the protein from snake venom , i . p . doses of 1 mg / kg , 10 mg / kg and 100 mg / kg were administered to healthy male mice ( three animals per group ) and the symptoms were observed and recorded . 0 . 9 % nacl was injected as control . postmortem examinations were conducted on the animals after their death / sacrifice . the anticoagulant activity of the purified protein was tested by two coagulation tests using a bbl fibrometer . blood plasma was collected from healthy human volunteers . prothrombin time — the prothrombin times were measured according to the method of quick ( 25 ). 100 μl of 50 mm tris - hcl buffer ( ph 7 . 4 ), 100 μl of plasma and 50 μl of the protein dissolved in the assay buffer were preincubated for 2 min at 37 ° c . clotting was initiated by the addition of 150 μl of thromboplastin with calcium reagent ( sigma - aldrich , st louis , mo .). recalcification time — the recalcification times were measured according to the method of langdell et al . ( 26 ). 100 μl of 50 mm tris - hcl buffer ( ph 7 . 4 ), 100 μl of plasma and 50 μl of the protein dissolved in the assay buffer were preincubated for 2 min at 37 ° c . clotting was initiated by the addition of 50 μl of 50 mm cacl 2 . blood from healthy human volunteers was centrifuged for 15 min at 3000 rpm at room temperature . the plasma was discarded and rbc &# 39 ; s were washed three times with 0 . 9 % nacl . the proteins were dissolved in 0 . 95 ml of 0 . 9 % nacl and 5 μl of washed rbc was added to obtain a 0 . 5 % suspension . 0 . 9 % nacl was taken as the negative control . the tubes were incubated at 37 ° c . for 1 h . rbc were removed by centrifugation at 3000 rpm for 15 min at room temperature and the absorbance of the supernatant was read at 418 nm and 540 nm . for electrocardiogram ( ecg ) measurements , sprague - dawley rats were anesthetized with an i . p . dose of 7 % chloral hydrate ( 5 ml / kg ). needle probes ( 29 - gauge , mla1204 ) were inserted into the front and back left paw pads of each mouse , and signals were captured using the animal bioamp differential amplifier ( ml136 ). signals were digitized using an eight - channel powerlab 8sp ( ml785 ), and recordings were displayed with chart 5 software ( adinstruments , castle hill , nsw , australia ). all probes and equipment for ecg measurements were obtained from adinstruments ( castle hill , nsw , australia ). continuous recording was made from 5 min before an i . t . v . injection of various doses of the protein until 20 min after the injection . the same volume of 0 . 9 % nacl was administered to the control group . the heart rate at different time points before and after the injection of the protein was estimated using the chart 5 software . rats were anesthetized with 7 % chloral hydrate ( 5 ml / kg ). 2 ml of 50 i . u . heparin ( david bull laboratories , warwick , uk ) was injected i . p . 15 min prior to sacrificing the animal . the heart was excised rapidly and placed in oxygenated krebs - henseleit ( kh ) solution ( in mm / 1 : nacl 118 . 0 , kcl 4 . 5 , kh 2 po 4 1 . 4 , mgso 4 1 . 2 , nahco 3 25 , cacl 2 1 . 4 and glucose 11 ; ph 7 . 4 ) before the aorta was cannulated on the langendorff apparatus . non - recirculating mode of retrograde perfusion with kh solution was carried out at a constant flow ( 6 - 7 ml / min ) at 37 ° c . the buffer was continuously bubbled with 95 % o 2 and 5 % co2 . the hearts were allowed to equilibrate for 30 min and in study groups the buffer flow was switched to a second reservoir which contained 5 μm of the protein dissolved in kh solution , plain kh solution was passed for further 15 min in case of control group . a water - filled latex balloon was attached to a pressure transducer and inserted through the mitral valve into the left ventricle ( lv ) through an incision in the left atrium . the pressure transducer was connected to a powerlab ( adinstruments , castle hill , nsw , australia ) data recording system . the following indices of cardiac performance were measured and averaged from ten beats for each condition : heart rate ( hr , in beats / min ) and left ventricle diastolic end pressure ( lvdep , in mmhg ), which is an index of contractile activity . premature contractions were excluded from the analyses . cloned human β - adrenergic receptor subtypes 1 and 2 ( β i and β 2 ) produced in sf9 cells were purchased from perkinelmer life and analytical sciences ( boston , mass .). the radioligand (−)-[ 3 h ] cgp - 12177 was purchased from ge healthcare ( buckinghamshire , uk ). for the competitive binding studies we used 0 . 15 nm (−)-[ 3 h ] cgp - 12177 , β 1 or β 2 and β - cardiotoxin ranging from 5 nm to 10 μm in 75 mm tris - hcl buffer containing 12 . 5 mm mgcl 2 and 2 mm edta , ph 7 . 4 . total reaction volume was 1050 μl . nonspecific binding was determined to be 2 - 3 % for β 1 and 1 - 2 % for β 2 by the inclusion of 2 μm ( s )-(−)- propranolol hydrochloride . after 60 min incubation at room temperature , the reaction mixtures were filtered through whatman gf / c glass microfibre filters ( maidstone , england ) presoaked in ice cold wash buffer ( 50 mm tris - hcl buffer , ph 7 . 4 ). the filters were washed nine times with 500 μl ( each time ) of ice cold wash buffer . a beckman ls3801 liquid scintillation counter was used to measure the radioactivity retained on the washed filters . the binding affinity k i was calculated from the ic 50 using the equation of cheng and prusoff ( 27 ), where , the ic 50 ( concentration of the inhibitor that displaces 50 % of bound ligand ) values were determined by plotting the % specific binding in the y - axis versus log [ molar concentration of protein used ] in the x - axis , k d is the binding affinity of the radioligand to the receptor . a partial cdna library was constructed using mrna isolated from venom gland tissue of the snake . as we were interested in low molecular weight proteins from the venom , we picked 346 clones from this library containing inserts ranging in size from 100 to 800 bp . the most abundant sequence found in the library was that of long neurotoxin 1 ( fig1 ). five new toxin genes were identified and their fulllength sequences were submitted to the ncbi genbank data base ( ay354198 , ay354200 , dq902574 , dq902575 and dq902576 ). from the conserved cys pattern we concluded that all these genes encoded for proteins belonging to the 3ftx family of snake venom proteins ( fig2 ). two non - toxin genes belonging to the ribosomal complex were also isolated ( ay354199 and ay357074 ). several other sequences ( 19 %) that were obtained did not show any match with available sequences from the data base ( fig1 ). the cdna ay354198 encodes for a protein with a molecular weight of 7012 . 42 da , which is closely related to proteins reported as precursors of cardiotoxins ( ctxs ) ( abb83631 , abb83632 , abb83633 , abb83634 and abb83635 ) all identified from o . hannah venom glands ( fig2 a ). these sequences are highly similar to each other , differing only at 2 to 5 sites out of which the substitutions k20r , v22i and l53v are conserved changes ( fig2 a ). despite being classified as ctxs ( or in one case as a short chain alpha neurotoxin ( aat97262 )) the biological properties of none of these proteins have been characterized . interestingly , they showed only 55 - 65 % sequence identity with conventional ctxs and ctx - like proteins ( fig2 b ) and even poorer sequence identity with neurotoxins ( data not shown ). further , most of the structural differences between ay354198 and conventional ctxs were found in the loop regions ( fig3 a ), which play an important role in the interaction of 3ftxs with various target proteins ( 13 ). therefore , we expected this protein to interact with a distinct protein target and to exhibit different pharmacological effects than classical ctxs and hence examined the biological properties of this protein . as shown below , this protein indeed shows distinct biological properties compared to other snake venom ctxs and hence belongs to a new class of 3ftxs . unlike conventional ctxs , it acts as a beta - blocker and decreases the heart rate and hence was named as β - cardiotoxin . our initial lc / ms studies of o . hannah venom ( 28 ) showed that it contains a protein with the molecular weight of 7013 . 80 ± 1 . 27 da indicating the presence of ay354198 protein in the venom . the novel protein was purified by following the calculated mass of the protein while fractionating the crude venom of o . hannah using chromatographic techniques . we used a two - step chromatography approach , where the first step comprised of separating the venom components based on their sizes into eight peaks using gel filtration chromatography ( fig4 a ). subsequently , each peak was fractionated by rp - hplc using a jupiter c18 semi preparative column ( for example , peak 5 ( fig4 b )). each rp - hplc fraction was then subjected to esi - ms analysis to determine the mass and hence the tentative identification of the protein ( data not shown ). the esi - ms of fraction 5d ( fig4 b ) showed three peaks with mass / charge ratios ranging from + 4 to + 6 charges ( data not shown ) and the final reconstructed spectrum showed a molecular weight of 7012 . 43 ± 0 . 91 da ( fig4 c ). the esi - ms spectrum also revealed the purity of the protein ( fig4 c ). n - terminal edman degradation sequencing of the first 30 residues further confirmed the identity of the protein . the secondary structural elements present in conventional cardiotoxins and β - cardiotoxin were analyzed using cd spectroscopy . naniproin , a ctx isolated from the venom of naja nigricollis 2 , showed a small minimum at 215 - 220 nm and an intense maximum at 190 - 195 nm and cm18 , a ctx from the venom of naja atra , showed a maximum at 220 - 225 nm , a small minimum at 210 - 212 nm and an intense maximum at 190 - 195 nm ( fig5 a ). interestingly , β - cardiotoxin showed intense minimum at 212 - 215 nm and small maximum at 198 nm and differed significantly from the cd spectra of the other two conventional ctxs ( fig5 a ). cd spectroscopy was employed to study the thermal unfolding of cm18 and β - cardiotoxin . there was a marked decrease in the β - sheet signal for cm18 at 95 ° c . and the band at 212 nm shifted towards 190 nm indicating the induction of random coil conformation ( fig5 b ). interestingly , β - cardiotoxin underwent a complete structural transition at higher temperatures . double minima at 222 - 225 nm and 203 nm started to appear at 85 ° c . indicating the presence of α - helical secondary structural elements ( fig5 c ). further , β - cardiotoxin was less thermostable compared to conventional ctx and started to undergo structural transition at about 75 ° c . ( fig5 c ). both the proteins attained their native structures upon cooling to 5 ° c . ( fig5 , b and c , insets ) showing that the thermal unfolding of both the proteins was completely reversible . we further investigated the effect of temperature on the tertiary structure of β - cardiotoxin using near - uv cd spectroscopy . we used a higher concentration of protein ( 1 mg / ml ) compared to far - uv cd experiments as the signals in this region are usually weak ( 29 ). thermal denaturation experiments as described above were repeated with a wavelength scan from 350 nm to 250 nm . the weak positive signals obtained are probably due to the complete absence of trp and phe and the presence of only two tyr residues in the protein . interestingly , at higher temperatures (& gt ; 75 ° c .) there was a drop in the signal implying a total loss of tertiary structure ( fig6 a ). when the sample was slowly cooled down to 5 ° c ., there was a complete recovery in the cd signal showing that the process is reversible ( fig6 b ). the loss of tertiary structure observed in the near - uv spectrum ( fig6 ) coincided with the β - sheet to α - helix transition that was observed in the far - uv spectrum ( fig5 c ) revealing the presence of a ‘ molten globule ’- like state that retained secondary structure with concomitant loss of tertiary structure ( 30 - 32 ). three groups of three male mice (˜ 20 g ) each were used in the toxicity studies . the first group received three increasing doses of β - cardiotoxin ( 1 mg / kg , 10 mg / kg and 100 mg / kg ) and the ensuing effects were closely monitored . the protein was not lethal up to 10 mg / kg dosage . at 100 mg / kg , the mice showed symptoms of labored breathing , impaired locomotion , lack of response to external stimuli and death occurred after about 30 min . postmortem examinations did not reveal any hemorrhage or visual damage to internal organs . to the second group , a single dose ( 2 . 5 mg / kg ) of α - bungarotoxin , a potent neurotoxin isolated from the venom of bungarus candidus was injected . these animals exhibited severe paralysis of the hind limbs and they died in about 10 min after the administration . to the last group , 0 . 9 % nacl was administered as a negative control and no symptoms developed until the animals were ultimately sacrificed at the end of the study . the effects of β - cardiotoxin ( final concentration of 50 μm protein per assay ) on the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways of blood coagulation were assessed using the prothrombin time and recalcification time , respectively . β - cardiotoxin did not cause any significant changes in the clotting time compared to the control in both assays ( fig7 a ). thus , we conclude that β - cardiotoxin does not affect blood coagulation . washed human erythrocytes were treated with β - cardiotoxin at concentrations ranging from 1 ng / ml to 100 μg / ml ( final concentration per assay ) to determine the hemolytic activity . the protein did not show any significant hemolytic activity as the absorbance values of the highest doses were comparable to that of the negative control ( fig7 b ). in contrast , ctx cm18 showed significant hemolytic activity ( fig7 b ). the in vivo activity of the protein was determined by administering the protein into anesthetized male rats and monitoring the changes induced in the ecg patterns . for the control animals the carrier alone ( 0 . 9 % nacl ) was injected and there was no change in the heart rate after injection ( fig8 a ). the administration of ctx cm18 , as expected , increased the heart rate and induced a positive chronotropic effect ( fig8 b ). in contrast , there was decrease in the heart rate as indicated by an increase in the distance between successive qrs complexes upon administration of β - cardiotoxin , suggesting a negative chronotropic effect that might cause bradycardia ( fig8 c ). thus , a conventional ctx increases the heart rate , while β - cardiotoxin decreases the heart rate ( fig8 d ). this decrease in the heart rate induced by β - cardiotoxin is dose - dependent ( fig8 e ). thus , β - cardiotoxin induces negative chronotropism in the heart rate in rats unlike conventional ctxs . the direct effects on cardiac tissue were determined using the langendorff isolated perfused rat hearts . there were no changes in any of the cardiac parameters in the control group ( fig9 a ), whereas β - cardiotoxin induced a negative chronotropic effect ( fig9 b ). β - cardiotoxin at 5 μm caused a marked reduction in the heart rate ( fig9 c ) without any significant change in the contractility as indicated by the lvdep ( fig9 d ). thus , the decrease in the heart rate induced by β - cardiotoxin in rats is most probably due to its direct action on the cardiac muscles . β - cardiotoxin interaction with β - adrenergic receptors ( β - ars ) β - ars are expressed abundantly in cardiomyocytes and the adrenergic signaling cascade is responsible for the control of heart rate ( 33 ). therefore we hypothesized that the change in heart rate observed in anesthetized rats and isolated perfused rat hearts could be due to interaction of β - cardiotoxin with β - ars , and hence we performed radioligand binding assays . at first , the non - specific binding of radioligand (−)-[ 3 h ] cgp - 12177 to the receptor preparations was defined using 2 μm ( s )-(−)- propranolol hydrochloride . the radioligand showed only 2 - 3 % non - specific binding to β - ar preparation and 1 - 2 % non - specific binding to β 2 - ar preparation . ( s )-(−)- propranolol hydrochloride was also used as a positive control in the study and ic 50 values for the displacement of bound radioligand to β 1 - ar and β 2 - ar were determined as 3 . 5 nm and 0 . 5 nm , respectively ( fig1 ). the binding affinity ( k 1 ) of ( s )-(−)- propranolol hydrochloride to β 1 - ar and β 2 - ar were calculated as 1 . 9 nm and 0 . 2 nm , respectively . these values are in good agreement with the k i values given by the manufacturer ( 2 . 6 nm and 0 . 2 nm for β 1 - ar and β 2 - ar , respectively ). β - cardiotoxin showed a dose - dependent displacement of the radioligand (−)-[ 3 h ] cgp - 12177 . ic 50 values for the inhibition of ligand binding to β 1 - ar and β 2 - ar were determined as 10 μm and 5 μm , respectively ( fig1 , a and b ). the k i for β - cardiotoxin binding to β 1 and β 2 ars were calculated as 5 . 3 μm and 2 . 3 μm , respectively . thus , β - cardiotoxin induces negative chronotropic effect on the heart rate by binding to β 1 - ar in cardiomyocytes . its interaction with β 2 - ar in the bronchi may be responsible for the observed breathing difficulties in mice . it is the first exogenous protein which interacts with β - ars and hence it was named as β - cardiotoxin . cardiovascular diseases ( cvd ) are widespread and are a major health issue in the developed nations . for example , a recent study revealed that about 71 . 3 million american adults suffer from one or more forms of cvd ( 34 ). cvd causes nearly 1 in every 3 deaths and was the number one killer in the usa as it was the cause for 37 . 3 % deaths in 2003 . the economic impact of cvd is huge , and it is estimated that the combined direct and indirect costs of treating cvds in 2006 would be $ 403 . 1 billion ( 34 ). betablockers , which are antagonists of β - ars , are the drugs of choice in the treatment of cvds . most patients ( 93 %) with myocardial infarction are given beta - blockers on arrival at hospitals . they are also prescribed after discharge as a chronic therapy ( 34 ). in addition , beta - blockers are used in the treatment of many pathological conditions afflicting the heart and vasculature , such as ventricular arrhythmias , heart failure , digitalis intoxication and fetal tachycardia . owing to the presence of β - ars in various non - cardiac tissues , beta - blockers have also been used to treat conditions like , migraine , essential tremor , situational anxiety , alcohol withdrawal , hyperparathyroidism , glaucoma , portal hypertension and gastrointestinal bleeding ( 35 ). most of the beta - blockers in clinical use currently are small molecules belonging to the aryloxypropanolamine class ( 36 ). although they are widely used , physicians have encountered several problems associated with the currently available beta - blockers . all betablockers are available as racemic mixtures of l - and d - enantiomers , where only the l - enantiomer exerts beta - blockade while the d - enantiomer , apart from being inert , may have adverse side effects . for example , in a clinical trial using the d - enantiomer of the widely used beta - blocker sotalol , it was reported that the mortality increased by 65 % compared to placebo ( 37 ). many beta - blockers exhibit varying levels of lipophilicity and so have the ability to cross membrane barriers and reach the central nervous system , causing adverse effects like hallucinations and insomnia ( 36 ). some beta - blockers are shown to increase insulin resistance and raise the risk of diabetes ( 38 ). thus , new beta - blockers with high specificity and low side effects are being sought . on screening the cdna library from the venom gland tissue of o . hannah , we identified five new 3ftxs . one of these 3ftxs showed only about 55 % sequence identity with conventional ctxs isolated from naja sp . ( fig2 b ). subsequently two other reports ( 39 , 40 ) have described the sequencing of the same toxin and also some closely related isoforms from cdna libraries ( fig2 a ), which shows the usefulness of this approach for identification of novel low abundant proteins that have eluded detection by conventional approaches . here we have described a two - step chromatographic approach for the isolation of this novel protein ( fig4 ). ctxs from different cobra venoms have been classified into two distinct structural subclasses based on their cd spectra ( 41 ). the secondary structural conformation of β - cardiotoxin is unique compared to both group 1 and group 2 ctxs ( naniproin and cm18 , respectively ) ( fig5 a ) and hence it is structurally different from both classes of ctxs . conventional ctxs have a few well conserved residues apart from the eight cys residues , which are thought to play an important role in maintaining structural integrity of the three - finger fold . among them are tyr 22 and tyr 51 , which have been shown by chemical modification to play vital structural and functional ( especially tyr 22 ) roles in ctxs ( 42 ). replacement of tyr 22 led to changes in interaction of β - sheet regions between loops i and ii and replacement of tyr 51 led to structural perturbation in the globular core region of the molecule , the overall effect being a destabilized structural core and highly perturbed dynamics in the 3 - stranded β - sheet region ( 43 ). unlike conventional ctxs , in β - cardiotoxin there are val residues in both positions 23 and 53 ( homologous to positions 22 and 51 of ctxs ) ( fig2 b ). to determine the consequences of these changes on the structure and stability of β - cardiotoxin , we performed thermal denaturation studies and monitored the temperature - induced secondary structural changes using far - uv cd spectroscopy . there are changes in the pattern and content of secondary structure starting from 75 ° c . in β - cardiotoxin ( fig5 c ), whereas the conventional ctx cm18 is stable up to 85 ° c . and starts showing signs of unfolding only at 95 ° c . ( fig5 b ). unlike cm18 which showed a general reduction in the β - sheet content upon heating , β - cardiotoxin underwent a complete structural transition at 85 ° c ., as new minima appeared at 222 - 225 nm and 203 nm indicating the presence of α - helical elements ( fig5 c ). to determine the implication of this observation on the overall fold and tertiary structure of the protein , we monitored the near - uv cd spectra at various temperatures ( fig6 ). there was a complete loss of tertiary structure coinciding closely with the structural transition occurring at 85 ° c . ( fig5 c ). this indicates the formation of a stable folding intermediate with intact secondary structural elements but loss of tertiary structure , which resembles the ‘ molten globule ’ state ( 30 - 32 ). the molten globule state has been reported for many different proteins since it was first defined . essentially , all molten globules possess three distinctive features , namely , compactness , presence of a secondary structure and a lack of rigid tertiary structure . this state has been achieved in different proteins under varied conditions like acidification , moderate concentrations of strong denaturants like urea or guanidine hcl , low concentrations of alcohol or fluoroalcohol ( e . g . trifluoroethanol ( tfe )), inorganic salt denaturants like sodium perchlorate , acids such as trichloroacetic acid , removal of tightly bound ligand , chemical modifications or site directed mutagenesis and in certain cases high pressure as well as temperature ( 44 ). molten globule states of β - sheet - rich proteins are less studied and have been reported in a few cases like ubiquitin ( 45 ), rat fatty acid binding protein ( 46 ), intertleukin - 1α ( 47 ), ctx analog iii ( 48 ), α - lactoglobulin ( βα - lg ) ( 49 ), tumor necrosis factor - α ( tnf - α ) ( 50 ) and a few other molecules ( 44 ). only α - lg and tnf - α , among the above proteins , exhibited a structural transition to a - helix associated with the formation of molten globule . the structural transition in α - lg was induced by addition of tfe , which is a known α - helix inducer ( 49 ). in the case of murine tnf - α , the structural transition occurred with the increase in temperature but without the addition of any chemical agent . it was postulated that once the non - local interactions leading to β - sheet formation were disrupted due to high temperatures , the local interactions were established resulting in the formation of α - helices due to a high α - helix forming propensity of murine tnf - α ( 50 ). the molten globule state of ctx analog iii was achieved using high temperatures as well as addition of chemical denaturants ( 48 ). however , no structural transitions were observed at higher temperatures ( 48 ). as shown here , β - cardiotoxin has a stable folding intermediate with α - helical elements at 85 ° c . ( fig5 c ). interestingly , unlike tnf - α , it has no α - helix forming propensity as calculated according to pollastri and mclysaght ( 51 ) ( fig1 ). nonetheless it undergoes a structural transition ( from β - sheet to α - helix ) at higher temperatures without the addition of any external agent or a reduction in ph . at lower temperatures it switches from α - helix to β - sheet ( fig5 c , inset ). thus β - cardiotoxin could be used as a tool to study the non - hierarchical model of protein folding ( 52 ). particularly , it may be a useful tool to understand the mechanism involved in α - helix to β - sheet structural transition as the unfolding process is completely reversible ( fig5 c , inset ). such α - helix to β - sheet structural transition plays a crucial role in neurodegenerative diseases ( 44 ). a better understanding of such natural events may be useful in the design and development of agents that would block such structural transitions . 3ftxs constitute about 50 % of the weight of most elapid and hydrophid venoms , and are the leading cause of death and morbidity as they are highly lethal ( 53 ). as mentioned in the introduction , despite the similarity in overall protein fold , they target different receptors , ion channels or proteins to exhibit pharmacological effects . as shown here , β - cardiotoxin exhibits unique biological effects compared to any of the 3ftxs known . although its amino acid sequence shows similarity to ctxs ( approximately 55 % identity ), it is structurally and functionally distinct from conventional ctxs . β - cardiotoxin was non - lethal up to a dose of 10 mg / kg , in contrast to ctxs , which are highly lethal proteins with ld 50 values in the range of 1 to 2 mg / kg ( 1 ). unlike ctxs , which show potent hemolytic activity ( 54 - 56 ), β - cardiotoxin failed to show hemolytic activity on washed human erythrocytes ( fig7 b ). further , unlike ctxs that cause an increase in heart rate when injected into anesthetized rats ( fig8 , b and d ) ( 57 ), β - cardiotoxin caused a dose - dependent decrease in heart rate indicated by the prolongation of successive qrs complexes in the ecg recording ( fig8 , c - e ). we also found that it can act directly on the cardiac tissue causing a marked reduction in heart rate in langendorff preparations of perfused rat hearts without affecting the contractility ( fig9 , b - d ). β - cardiotoxin binds directly to β 1 - and β 2 - ars . the k i values indicate that it has higher affinity for β 2 - ar compared to β 1 - ar ( 5 . 3 μm and 2 . 3 μm for β 1 - and β 2 - ars , respectively ). this is the first report of an exogenous peptide targeting β - ars . thus it is a new class of 3ftxs . the proteins shown in fig2 a are highly similar to β - cardiotoxin ( 92 - 96 % identity ) and the substitutions are mostly in the core region and not the extended loops ( fig3 b ). therefore , we hypothesize that these proteins are likely to be functionally related to β - cardiotoxin . thus these 3ftxs , although identified as ctxs and short - chain neurotoxins , may probably act as betablockers . the structure - function relationship studies of these proteins will indicate whether the few amino acid changes disrupt their interaction with β 1 - and β 2 - ars . adrenergic receptors ( ars ) are g protein - coupled receptors ( gpcrs ) that are expressed in a wide variety of tissues and are important functional regulators of various systems like cardiac , pulmonary , vascular , endocrine and central nervous systems ( 58 ). ars in the heart act as a link between sympathetic nervous system and cardiovascular system and play an important role in the rapid regulation of myocardial function . β 1 - ar is the predominant receptor subtype expressed in cardiomyocytes ( 33 ). the proportion of β 1 - and β 2 - ars present in heart varies with species , age and developmental stage ( 33 ). β 3 - ars are less abundant in the heart and their functional role is poorly understood ( 59 ). in vivo and in vitro assays show that β 1 - ars play a predominant role in modulating the heart rate and the force of contraction in murine hearts ( 59 ). on the other hand , under normal conditions β 2 - ars are expressed abundantly in bronchi of lungs and regulate its contractility ( 36 ). thus specificity of beta - blockers is critical in the treatment of patients with cvds , particularly those with breathing disorders . as currently available beta - blockers have some crossreactivity with β 2 - ar , they are not suitable for this subset of cvd patients . recent studies have shown that β 2 - ars are the only subtype of β - ars to be expressed on the membranes of major cell types in the skin like keratinocytes ( 60 ), fibroblasts ( 61 ) and melanocytes ( 62 ). pullar and co - workers demonstrated that β 2 - ar activation leads to delay in skin wound healing ( 63 ). they went on to exploit this finding and showed that β 2 - ar blockade using non - specific beta - blockers accelerated wound healing process ( 58 ). hence , this could be another application for therapeutic use of β - cardiotoxin . the interaction of β - cardiotoxin with β 1 - ar leads to decrease in heart rate , whereas its interaction with β 2 - ar leads to the breathing difficulties observed in mice . thus β - cardiotoxin represents a new class of protein beta - blockers that can be exploited as a novel therapeutic prototype . the structure - function studies and suitable engineering may help in the development of new classes of either β 1 - ar - specific beta - blockers ( for systemic administration ) that would help in the treatment of cvds or β 2 - ar - specific beta - blockers ( for topical administration ) that would help in wound healing . in summary , we have described the identification and isolation of β - cardiotoxin which is the first member of a new class of 3ftxs . although closely related to conventional ctxs , it has unique structural and functional features . we have characterized a unique ‘ molten globule ’ intermediate in the thermal unfolding process of β - cardiotoxin . functionally it directly acts on cardiac tissue causing bradycardia . these effects are mediated through its interaction with β - ars . these proteins could serve as prototypes for rational design of highly specific and effective beta - blocking peptides having reduced side effects . thus this is the first exogenous protein beta - blocker . snake venoms have provided a number of novel ligands with therapeutic potential . we have described the identification and isolation of β - cardiotoxin , which is the first member of a new class of three - finger toxins ( 3ftxs ). although it shows sequence homology to conventional cardiotoxins ( ctxs ), it has unique structural and functional features . conventional ctxs are highly lethal proteins with ld 50 values in the range of 1 to 2 mg / kg ( hider et al ., 1991 ). they show potent hemolytic activity ( osorio e castro et al ., 1989 , louw and visser , 1978 and hider and khader , 1982 ) and cause an increase in heart rate ( tachycardia ) when injected into anesthetized rats ( sun and walker , 1986 ). in contrast , β - cardiotoxin is nonlethal up to a dose of 10 mg / kg , does not show haemolytic activity on washed human erythrocytes and most importantly causes a dose - dependent decrease in heart rate ( bradycardia ) with a prolongation of successive qrs complexes in the ecg recordings ( rajagopalan et al ., 2007 ). we also found that it acts directly on the cardiac tissue causing a marked reduction in heart rate ( negative chronotropism ) in langendorff preparations of perfused rat hearts without affecting the contractility ( inotropism ). further , we have shown that the above mentioned pharmacological effects are due to its direct binding to β1 - and β2 - adrenergic receptors ( ars ) ( rajagopalan et al ., 2007 ). thus , β - cardiotoxin is the first exogenous protein beta - blocker . therefore , it is important to understand the structure and structure - function relationships of this unique class of beta - blocker . these studies may help in the rational design of highly specific and effective beta blocking peptides . all known beta blockers belong to a single small molecule family called aryloxypropanolamine . structure - function relationship studies of these molecules revealed the importance of the aromatic ring structure for its interaction with β - adrenergic receptors ( β - ars ) ( kobilka , 2007 and rosenbaum et al ., 2007 ). therefore , we hypothesised that one of the tyr residues found in the β - cardiotoxin may be involved in its interaction with β - ars . thus we designed three peptides from β - cardiotoxin . while designing these three peptides we have also incorporated design ideas based on the ‘ proline - bracket hypothesis ’ ( kini and evans , 1994 ). these peptides were synthesized by solid - phase peptide synthesis and purified by reverse phase - hplc ( rp - hplc ). their interaction with β - ars was determined by competitive binding assays using a radiolabled ligand . we have also initiated studies on the determination of its three - dimensional structure by x - ray crystallography . standard fmoc - l - amino acid hydroxyl derivatives , fmoc - l - ile - peg - ps ( polyethylene glycol - polystyrene ) support resin , n , n - dimethylformamide ( dmf ), trifluoroacetic acid ( tfa ), 20 % piperidine in dmf , o -( 7 - azabenzotriazol - 1 - yl )- 1 , 1 , 3 ,- 3 - tetramethyluronium hexafluorophosphate ( hatu ), and n , n - diisopropylethylamine ( dipea ) were purchased from applied biosystems asia pte ltd ( foster city , calif .). jupiter c 18 ( 5μ , 300 å , 10 × 250 mm ) were purchased from phenomenex ( torrance , calif ., usa ). 1 , 2 - ethanedithiol and thioanisole were obtained from fluka / riedel - de haen ( sigma aldrich , st . louis , mo .). all other chemicals and reagents used were of analytical grade . β - cardiotoxin was purified by a two - step chromatography approach as described previously ( rajagopalan et al ., 2007 ). crystallization trials for β - cardiotoxin were conducted using the hanging drop vapor - diffusion method and a wide range of conditions were tested using hampton research crystal screens i , ii and qiagen pact suite . the protein concentration was kept at 15 mg / ml and the drops were prepared by mixing equal volumes ( 1 μl ) of protein solution ( dissolved in 25 mm tris buffer ph 7 . 4 ) and crystallization solution . the screens were set up at 295 k using vdx plates from hampton research . 500 μl reservoir solution was placed in each well . the initial screen identified a peg - based crystallization condition . by systematic optimization around the preliminary condition , we obtained diffraction - quality crystals of β - cardiotoxin . the best crystals were from a condition consisting of 0 . 1 m spg buffer ph 7 , 25 % peg 1500 with an additive of 0 . 1 μl of 0 . 1 m spermidine . we have collected a complete native data set for β - cardiotoxin . the crystals were picked up with a nylon cryo - loop and frozen at 100 k in a nitrogen - gas cold stream ( cryostream cooler ; oxford cryosystems , oxford , england ). data was collected at the in house rigaku xray generator . data sets were processed using hkl - 2000 ( otwinowski & amp ; minor , 1997 ). the crystals diffract to 3 . 2 å resolution . the space group was p2 , with unit cell parameters a = 54 . 64 , b = 90 . 90 , c = 88 . 82 å . the matthews coefficient vm of 3 . 10 å 3 / da ( matthews , 1968 ) is within the expected range for 10 monomers in the asymmetric unit and corresponds to a solvent content of 60 . 33 %. three peptides ( bcl1a , bcl1b and bcl 2 ) were synthesized using solid - phase peptide synthesis methods on an applied biosystems pioneer model 433a peptide synthesizer . fmoc groups of amino acids were removed by 20 % v / v piperidine in n , n - dimethylformamide and coupled using hatu / dipea in situ neutralization chemistry . all peptides were synthesized on preloaded polyethylene glycol polystyrene ( peg - ps ) resins . cleavage by a mixture of trifluoroacetic acid / 1 , 2 - ethanedithiol / thioanisole / water released peptide acids (— cooh ). synthetic peptides were purified by reverse phase - hplc on an akta purifier ( ge healthcare , uppsala , sweden ) with a jupiter c 18 ( 5μ , 300 å , 10 mm × 250 mm ) column that was equilibrated with 0 . 1 % trifluoroacetic acid and the proteins eluted with a linear gradient of 80 % acetonitrile in 0 . 1 % trifluoroacetic acid . the fractions were collected and directly injected into an api - 300 liquid chromatography / tandem mass spectrometry system ( perkinelmer life sciences , wellesley , mass ., usa ) for mass determination . fractions showing the expected molecular mass were pooled and lyophilized . air oxidation was carried out for bcl2 to form the disulfide linkage . oxidation reactions were quenched by adding glacial acetic acid to adjust ph to 4 . 0 before separation by rp - hplc . cloned human β - adrenergic receptor subtypes 1 and 2 ( β1 and ( β2 ) produced in sf9 cells were purchased from perkinelmer life and analytical sciences ( boston , mass ., usa ). the radioligand (−)-[ 3 h ] cgp - 12177 was purchased from ge healthcare ( buckinghamshire , uk ). the competitive binding assay was carried out using the method described by sharpe et al ., and a few recommendations by the receptor manufacturers ( perkinelmer life and analytical sciences ) were also incorporated . for the competitive binding studies , we used 0 . 15 nm (−)-[ 3 h ] cgp - 12177 , β1 or β2 and β - cardiotoxin ranging from 5 nm to 10 μm in 75 mm tris - hcl buffer containing 12 . 5 mm mgcl2 and 2 mm edta , ph 7 . 4 . total reaction volume was 1050 μl . nonspecific binding was determined to be 2 - 3 % for β1 and 1 - 2 % for β2 by the inclusion of 2 μm ( s )-(−)- propranolol hydrochloride . after 60 min incubation at room temperature , the reaction mixtures were filtered through whatman gf / c glass microfibre filters ( maidstone , england ) presoaked in ice - cold wash buffer ( 50 mm tris - hcl buffer , ph 7 . 4 ). the filters were washed nine times with 500 μl ( each time ) of ice - cold wash buffer . a beckman ls3801 liquid scintillation counter was used to measure the radioactivity retained on the washed filters . the binding affinity k i was calculated from the ic 50 using the equation of cheng and prusoff , where , the ic 50 ( concentration of the inhibitor that displaces 50 % of bound ligand ) values were determined by plotting the percent specific binding in the y - axis vs . log [ molar concentration of protein used ] in the x - axis , k d is the binding affinity of the radioligand to the receptor . β - cardiotoxin is a novel member of the 3ftx family . 3ftxs are the most abundant and well - characterized non - enzymatic family of snake venom toxins found mostly in hydrophid ( sea snakes ) and elapid ( cobras and kraits ) venoms . all members of this family share a similar fold consisting of three finger - like loops made of β - sheet structure , projecting from a globular core and stabilized by four or five intramolecular disulfide linkages giving rise to the compact “ β - cross ” motif ( endo and tamiya , 1987 , kini 2002 , nirthanan et al ., 2003 , tsetlin 1999 , and harrison and sternberg , 1996 ). though the members of this large family of proteins share similar structural scaffold , it has been shown that there are subtle differences that could contribute to the difference in affinity and specificity ( rees et al ., 1987 and bilwes et al ., 1994 ). thus it is very essential to solve the 3 - d structure of this novel protein to facilitate in the rational design of bioactive peptides . we have successfully identified the crystallization condition for the protein after screening 192 conditions . β - cardiotoxin was crystallized by the hanging - drop vapour - diffusion method by equilibration against 0 . 1 m spg buffer ph 7 containing 0 . 1 μl of 0 . 1m spermidine and 25 % peg 1500 as the precipitating agent ( fig1 a ). the crystals belong to space group p2 , with unit cell parameters a = 54 . 64 , b = 90 . 90 , c = 88 . 82 å . there are 10 monomers in the asymmetric unit . the crystals diffract to 3 . 2 å resolution ( fig1 b ). we are currently trying to optimize the cryo conditions to obtain higher resolution data with lower mosaicity . β - cardiotoxin is the first exogenous protein reported to bind to and inhibit the β - ars . all known beta - blockers belong to a single small molecule family called aryloxypropanolamine . although they are widely used , physicians have encountered several problems associated with the currently available beta - blockers . all beta - blockers are available as racemic mixtures of l and d - enantiomers , where only the l - enantiomer exerts beta - blockade while the d - enantiomer , apart from being inert , may have adverse side effects . for example , in a clinical trial using the d - enantiomer of the widely used beta - blocker sotalol , it was reported that the mortality increased by 65 % compared to placebo . many beta - blockers exhibit varying levels of lipophilicity and so have the ability to cross membrane barriers and reach the central nervous system , causing adverse effects like hallucinations and insomnia . some beta - blockers are shown to increase insulin resistance and raise the risk of diabetes ( griffith , 2003 , waldo et al ., 1996 and gress et al ., 2000 ). another major issue with beta blockers is that many beta blockers like esmolol exert a direct inhibitory effect on membrane ca 2 + channels apart from acting as beta - blocking agents . this inhibition of membrane currents would lead to pronounced negative inotropism leading to adverse complications like severe reduction of blood pressure ( arlock et al ., 2005 ). however , such a problem was not encountered when β - cardiotoxin was injected into animals . β - cardiotoxin induced a negative chronotropism but did not affect the inotropism of animal hearts ( rajagopalan et al ., 2007 ). all the natural ligands of β - ars have an aromatic ring structure . this moiety has been shown to be very important for interaction with trans - membrane helices tm 3 , tm 5 and tm 6 ( kobilka , 2007 ). there are only two aromatic amino acid residues in the β - cardiotoxin sequence , tyr 12 and tyr 34 ( fig1 ). thus , we hypothesize that these tyr residues may play an important role in the interaction of β - cardiotoxin with β - ars . to test this hypothesis we designed three short peptides from the β - cardiotoxin sequence ( fig1 ). we used design ideas from the “ proline - bracket ” hypothesis proposed by kini and evans for the design of bcl1a ( seq id no . 46 and bcl1b ( seq id no . 47 ). bcl2 ( seq id no . 48 ) was designed as a circular peptide by placing one cys on either end of the peptide ( fig1 ). the designed peptides were synthesized by solid - phase chemical synthesis method and purified by rp - hplc ( fig1 a , c and e ). the masses of the purified peptides were determined by esi - ms and we found that they matched exactly with the calculated molecular weights ( fig1 b , d and f ). bcl2 was circularized after synthesis by oxidation of the free cys residues . we performed competitive binding assay using the radioligand (−)-[ 3 h ] cgp - 12177 to determine the interaction of the three peptides with cloned human β - ar subtypes 1 and 2 ( fig1 ). these peptides were designed without any structural inputs as the 3 - d structure of β - cardiotoxin is not yet solved . in summary , we have identified the crystallization condition for obtaining good quality crystals of β - 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