Animal Toxins Acting on Ion Channels and Drug Discovery

Animal venoms are among the richest sources of toxins and pharmacologically active compounds that act on ion channels.At present,many novel pharmacological agents of great potential interests to pharmacologists and neuroscientists are being characterized from the venoms of reptiles,spiders,scorpions,sea anemones and cone snails.These toxins are widely used to elucidate the interrelationship between the structure/function of their targets.Many animal toxins are often of small size peptides,rich in disulfide bonds.They exert multiple functions acting on a variety of molecular targets,including ion channels,enzymes and receptors.With their high potency and selectivity to voltage-gated ion channels and their unique and simple three-dimensional folds,many low molecular toxins are often useful as a model to discover,design novel drug leads and to reveal potential therapeutic targets.The classification and specificity of animal toxins and their potency in drug exploitation were discussed.