Snake cytotoxins bind to membranes via interactions with phosphatidylserine head groups of lipids.

ABSTRACT: The major representatives of Elapidae snake venom, cytotoxins (CTs), share similar three-fingered fold and exert diverse range of biological activities against various cell types. CT-induced cell death starts from the membrane recognition process, whose molecular details remain unclear. It is known, however, that the presence of anionic lipids in cell membranes is one of the important factors determining CT-membrane binding. In this work, we therefore investigated specific interactions between one of the most abundant of such lipids, phosphatidylserine (PS), and CT 4 of Naja kaouthia using a combined, experimental and modeling, approach. It was shown that incorporation of PS into zwitterionic liposomes greatly increased the membrane-damaging activity of CT 4 measured by the release of the

SUBMITTER: Konshina AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3084733 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature