TY - JOUR
T1 - Centipedes subdue giant prey by blocking KCNQ channels
AU - Luo, Lei
AU - Li, Bowen
AU - Wang, Sheng
AU - Wu, Fangming
AU - Wang, Xiaochen
AU - Liang, Ping
AU - Ombati, Rose
AU - Chen, Junji
AU - Lu, Xiancui
AU - Cui, Jianmin
AU - Lu, Qiumin
AU - Zhang, Longhua
AU - Zhou, Ming
AU - Tian, Changlin
AU - Yang, Shilong
AU - Lai, Ren
N1 - Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank Prof. Kewei Wang for providing hKCNQ1, 2, and 4 plasmids; Prof. Hailin Zhang for providing hKCNQ 3 and 5 plasmids; Prof. Jiuping Ding for mBKCa and hβ1; Dr. NingNing Wei for gating kinetics analysis; and Dr. Shaoxing Dai for the convenient Discovery studio software installation. We also thank Lin Zeng for her work on SsTx disulfide bond parsing. We thank our laboratory members Zhanserik Shynykul, Yalan Han, Canwei Du, Xin Wang, and Yunfei Wang for discussion. This work was supported by funding from Ministry of Science and Technology of China Grant (2013CB911304), the National Science Foundation (NSF) of China Grants (331372208 and U1302221), the Chinese Academy of Sciences Grants (XDA12040209 and QYZDJ-SSW-SMC012), and Yunnan Province Grant (2015HA023; to R.L.), the NSF of China Grants (31640071 and 3177040928) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Grants (XDA12020334 and Youth Innovation Promotion Association; to S.Y.), Yunnan Province Grant (2016FA006; to Q.L.), and the NSF of China Grant (31470740; to F.W.).
Funding Information:
We thank Prof. Kewei Wang for providing hKCNQ1, 2, and 4 plasmids; Prof. Hailin Zhang for providing hKCNQ 3 and 5 plasmids; Prof. Jiuping Ding for mBKCa and hβ1; Dr. NingNing Wei for gating kinetics analysis; and Dr. Shaoxing Dai for the convenient Discovery studio software installation. We also thank Lin Zeng for her work on SsTx disulfide bond parsing. We thank our laboratory members Zhanserik Shynykul, Yalan Han, Canwei Du, Xin Wang, and Yunfei Wang for discussion. This work was supported by funding from Ministry of Science and Technology of China Grant (2013CB911304), the National Science Foundation (NSF) of China Grants (331372208 and U1302221), the Chinese Academy of Sciences Grants (XDA12040209 and QYZDJ-SSW-SMC012), and Yunnan Province Grant (2015HA023; to R.L.), the NSF of China Grants (31640071 and 3177040928) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Grants (XDA12020334 and Youth Innovation Promotion Association; to S.Y.), Yunnan Province Grant (2016FA006; to Q.L.), and the NSF of China Grant (31470740; to F.W.).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 National Academy of Sciences. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2018/2/13
Y1 - 2018/2/13
N2 - Centipedes can subdue giant prey by using venom, which is metabolically expensive to synthesize and thus used frugally through efficiently disrupting essential physiological systems. Here, we show that a centipede (Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans, ∼3 g) can subdue a mouse (∼45 g) within 30 seconds. We found that this observation is largely due to a peptide toxin in the venom, SsTx, and further established that SsTx blocks KCNQ potassium channels to exert the lethal toxicity. We also demonstrated that a KCNQ opener, retigabine, neutralizes the toxicity of a centipede’s venom. The study indicates that centipedes’ venom has evolved to simultaneously disrupt cardiovascular, respiratory, muscular, and nervous systems by targeting the broadly distributed KCNQ channels, thus providing a therapeutic strategy for centipede envenomation.
AB - Centipedes can subdue giant prey by using venom, which is metabolically expensive to synthesize and thus used frugally through efficiently disrupting essential physiological systems. Here, we show that a centipede (Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans, ∼3 g) can subdue a mouse (∼45 g) within 30 seconds. We found that this observation is largely due to a peptide toxin in the venom, SsTx, and further established that SsTx blocks KCNQ potassium channels to exert the lethal toxicity. We also demonstrated that a KCNQ opener, retigabine, neutralizes the toxicity of a centipede’s venom. The study indicates that centipedes’ venom has evolved to simultaneously disrupt cardiovascular, respiratory, muscular, and nervous systems by targeting the broadly distributed KCNQ channels, thus providing a therapeutic strategy for centipede envenomation.
KW - Centipede
KW - KCNQ
KW - SsTx
KW - Toxicity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042022283&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1714760115
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1714760115
M3 - Article
C2 - 29358396
AN - SCOPUS:85042022283
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 115
SP - 1646
EP - 1651
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 7
ER -