Spider venom peptides as potential drug candidates due to their anticancer and antinociceptive activities

 

Ting Wu^1 2, Meng Wang^1 2, Wenfang Wu¹, Qianxuan Luo¹, Liping Jiang³, Huai Tao⁴, Meichun Deng¹

 

1 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410013, China.

2 Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410013, China.

3 Department of Parasitology, Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410013, China.

4 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, Hunan 410208, China.

 

ABSTRACT

Spider venoms are known to contain proteins and polypeptides that perform various functions including antimicrobial, neurotoxic, analgesic, cytotoxic, necrotic, and hemagglutinic activities. Currently, several classes of natural molecules from spider venoms are potential sources of chemotherapeutics against tumor cells. Some of the spider peptide toxins produce lethal effects on tumor cells by regulating the cell cycle, activating caspase pathway or inactivating mitochondria. Some of them also target the various types of ion channels (including voltage-gated calcium channels, voltage-gated sodium channels, and acid-sensing ion channels) among other pain-related targets. Herein we review the structure and pharmacology of spider-venom peptides that are being used as leads for the development of therapeutics against the pathophysiological conditions including cancer and pain.

 

Keywords spider venom peptides; antitumor; pain; drug candidates.

 

Received: June 13, 2018.

Accepted: November 15, 2018.

 

^{Correspondence: dengmch@csu.edu.cn}

Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests

 

Authors' contributions TW, MW, WW, QL, LJ, HT and MD contributed to the material collection and manuscript writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.