Chemical modifications and pharmacological characterization of PhTX-I and PhTX-II myotoxins isolated from Porthidium hyoprora

Author(s)

Salomón Huancahuire Vega

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Biologia
• Defense date: 2012-07-11

Examining board members

Marcio Alberto Torsoni; Walter Luís Garrido Cavalcante; Fernanda Ramos Gadelha; Vera Lucia Bonfim Tiburzio

• Advisor: Sergio Marangoni; Luis Alberto Ponce Soto

Abstract

In this work, were purified two myotoxics phospholipases A2 (PLA2), PhTX-I and PhTX-II, from P. hyoprora snake venom, determined their primary sequences and characterized their pharmacological and biochemical activities. These proteins were purified in a single chromatographic step (FR-HPLC) and obtained with homogeneous and high purity, which was confirmed by SDS-PAGE, amino acid analysis and mass spectrometry. PhTX-I and PhTX-II are constituted of a single polipetide chain and have molecular mass of 14.249 and 14.149 Da, respectively. The amino acid sequence was determined by ESI-MS/MS mass spectrometry; belong to PLA2 D49 family. The predominant secondary structure of these proteins consists of ?-helix. PhTX-I and PhTX-II induced neuromuscular paralyzing effect ex vivo in young chick biventer cervicis preparations, this activity was similar to other PLA2 of snake venom. In vivo, PhTX-I and PhTX -II induced local myotoxicity and edema-forming activity, in addition, PhTX-I induces release of IL-6 after intramuscular injection in mice. In vitro, PhTX-I and PhTX -II were cytotoxic to the fibroblast cell line NIH-3T3 and NG97 derived from grade III human astrocytoma. Additionally PhTX-I induced low cytotoxicity in skeletal muscle myoblasts, however was able to lyse myotubes. Were made modifications chemical in PhTX-I specific amino acid residues and evaluated the pharmacological activities after modifications. Was modified one His and Trp, four Tyr and seven Lys residues? Analysis by circular dichroism demonstrated that secondary structure of protein remains practically unchanged. Evaluation of biological activities indicate a critical role of Lys and Tyr amino acid at myotoxicity, neuromuscular paralyzing effect, and especially cytotoxicity induced by PhTX-I. The catalytic activity of PhTX-I is relevant to the edematogenic, neuromuscular paralyzing and myotoxic effects, but not for their cytotoxic activity, since this effect is completely independent of the catalytic activity of PhTX-I, demonstrating the existence of molecular regions, different from the catalytic site, which may be responsible for at least some of the pharmacological properties of PhTX-I. We conclude that both the catalytic site and the hypothetical pharmacological site(s) are apparently relevant for the pharmacological profile of PhTX-I, although a partial dissociation between these activities has been demonstrated (AU)