Identification and isolation of protein α-latroinsectotoxin from the venom of spider Latrodectus mactans tredecimguttatus

G. I. Kovalevskaya, V. N. Pashkov, O. V. Bulgakov, I. M. Fedorova, L. G. Magazanic, E. V. Grishin

Branch of the M. M. Shemyakin Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Pushchino, Moscow Region; I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Leningrad; M. M. Shemyakin Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow

Abstract: The crude Venom of spider Latrodectus mactans tredecimguttatus was fractionated by the combination of anion exchange and hydrophobic chromatography. The biological activity of fraction was tested by means of: 1) estimation of toxicity for housefly larva; 2) intracellular recording of miniature excitatory potentials (MEPSPs) in blowfly larvae muscle fibers. As a result of sequential procedures of chromatography separation a homogeneous protein of 120 kilodalton molecular weight was obtained. This protein ref-fered to α-latroinsectotoxin produced: 1) a great increase of the frequency of MEPSPs in the dose of 4.2-10-10M and its paralytic dose for fly larva was approximately 20 ng/species; 2) no influence of the MEPSPs after application in the dose of 1.2-10-7 M to the neuromuscular junction of the frog.

Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry 1990, 16 (8):1013-1018

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