Chemistry of Surinam Coral Snake Venom

This research will discover novel polypeptides in snake venom that may have utility in biomedical rdiscovered that prove useful will be produced commercially as specialty biochemicals. These toxins wtargets, including some or all of the following: sodium, potassium, calcium, and chloride channels,receptors, nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, acetycholinesterases, complement systemfibrinogen, fibrin and other clotting factors, cell membranes, and cardiac and vascular smooth musclspecificity, natural toxins are increasingly used to explore the causes of neurological and cardiovathe discovered toxins may serve as lead structures for human or veterinary pharmaceuticals to treattoxins may prove useful as components of natural pesticides. Venom of the Surinam coral snake (Micruan extremely promising source for novel natural toxins. Preliminary data indicate that this venom isthat of any other snake. Specific aims of this proposal are to systematically fractionate this venom(>0.1%) constituents, and to determine their primary structures. A subsequent grant will be requiredpharmacology of promising novel toxins.