Some neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system are based on disturbances in the activity of brain receptors, and if these changes can be corrected, it will be possible to overcome the diseases associated with them. This is exactly what, according to the publication Neuron, the study was directed by an international group of scientists. And, as it turned out, the poison of the orb-web spider will help in this.
The study was aimed at studying glutamate receptors. The fact is that, which is logical, they are activated in the body due to the effect of glutamate by attaching to special proteins and opening an ion channel in them that allows positively charged ions to pass through. As a result, an electrical potential arises, which spreads to all processes of neurons. In some diseases of the nervous system, glutamate receptors are over-activated. In this case, receptors that conduct calcium are especially dangerous, because a large amount of it leads to cell death (as a result of starting the process of apoptosis). That is why the development of a substance that blocks the glutamate receptors of calcium channels is quite an important task.
In the course of their work, scientists, having studied the structure of the receptor, decided to act on it with three different compounds, the first of which was the venom of the already mentioned orb-web spider (Argiope lobata), and the other two were its synthetic analogs. Each consists of two parts, the so-called "head" and "tail". According to one of the participants in the experiment, Alexander Sobolevsky, a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and now an employee of Columbia University,
It turned out that both spider toxin and synthetic drugs selectively block those receptors that pass calcium well. Moreover, they do not affect receptors, in the opening of which calcium does not participate. Thus, drugs based on spider venom can only affect the affected receptors and not affect the work of healthy areas of the brain neurons. The information obtained can be used to treat conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, epilepsy, and cell death in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
Vladimir Kuznetsov