Graphic abstract for tarantula toxin study (IMAGE)

University of Washington School of Medicine/UW Medicine

Graphic abstract for tarantula toxin study

Caption

This graphic abstract for a Nov. 23 Molecular Cell paper shows how a tarantula nerve toxin acts on a chimera of a voltage-gated sodium channel. The chimeric sodium channel contains part of a human channel crucial for pain transmission that has been imported onto a model ancestral sodium channel from a bacterium. The tarantula toxin has a lysine stinger that traps the voltage sensor on the sodium channel and keeps it from activating. The toxin thus immobilizes the tarantula's prey. Its action on sodium channels also holds ideas for designs for better pain-control drugs.

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Catterall and Zheng labs/UW Medicine

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