Everything is poison, everything is medicine
Scorpion venom will launch the medicine into the brain
Vladimir Guillen, Naked Science
The Institute of Biomedical Research in Barcelona published an article in the journal Chemical Communications (Díaz-Perlas et al., From venoms to BBB-shuttles. MiniCTX3: a molecular vector derived from scorpion venom), which describes the use of a peptide isolated from chlorotoxin in scorpion venom to deliver medications through the hemato-encephalic barrier (BBB). This barrier protects the brain from toxic substances, but also prevents the passage of many potentially useful drugs.
"About 98 percent of drugs that may have therapeutic use cannot be used due to the fact that they are not able to cross this barrier," explains Ernest Giralt, head of the laboratory.
The researchers were able to chemically synthesize chlorotoxin and several of its analogues that retained some of the properties of the original peptide. They studied the work of these compounds in cellular models of BBB and demonstrated that the MiniCTX3 peptide can transfer compounds through BBB with a very high degree of efficiency.
Just as traditional medicine uses natural products like plants and flowers to treat various diseases, researchers have been looking for inspiration in poison, aiming to identify peptide "shuttles".
"Our goal is to make sure that drugs get into the brain. To achieve this, we bind them to peptides specifically designed to cross the BBB. Converting these drugs into shuttles will increase their effectiveness," says study co–author Meritxell Teixido.
"There are only two or three groups in the world that deal with shuttle peptides. We are working on several strategies, one of which is poisons," explains Giralt.
Figure from the IRB Barcelona Scorpion venom press release to shuttle drugs into the brain - VM.
In previous studies, scientists have developed a shuttle peptide capable of passing through the BBB, inspired by a peptide from bee venom – apamine.
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