CPP-Ts: a new intracellular calcium channel modulator and a promising tool for drug delivery in cancer cells.

ABSTRACT: Scorpion sting envenoming impacts millions of people worldwide, with cardiac effects being one of the main causes of death on victims. Here we describe the first Ca²⁺ channel toxin present in Tityus serrulatus (Ts) venom, a cell penetrating peptide (CPP) named CPP-Ts. We show that CPP-Ts increases intracellular Ca²⁺ release through the activation of nuclear InsP3R of cardiomyocytes, thereby causing an increase in the contraction frequency of these cells. Besides proposing a novel subfamily of Ca²⁺ active toxins, we investigated its potential use as a drug delivery system targeting cancer cell nucleus using CPP-Ts's nuclear-targeting property. To this end, we prepared a synthetic CPP-Ts sub peptide^14-39 lacking pharmacological activity which was d

SUBMITTER: Oliveira-Mendes BBR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6170434 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature