omega-conotoxin CVID inhibits a pharmacologically distinct voltage-sensitive calcium channel associated with transmitter release from preganglionic nerve terminals
Adams, D.J., Smith, A.B., Schroeder, C.I., Yasuda, T., Lewis, R.J.(2003) J Biol Chem 278: 4057-4062
- PubMed: 12441339 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M209969200
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
1TT3, 1TTK - PubMed Abstract: 
Neurotransmitter release from preganglionic parasympathetic neurons is resistant to inhibition by selective antagonists of L-, N-, P/Q-, R-, and T-type calcium channels. In this study, the effects of different omega-conotoxins from genus Conus were investigated on current flow-through cloned voltage-sensitive calcium channels expressed in Xenopus oocytes and nerve-evoked transmitter release from the intact preganglionic cholinergic nerves innervating the rat submandibular ganglia. Our results indicate that omega-conotoxin CVID from Conus catus inhibits a pharmacologically distinct voltage-sensitive calcium channel involved in neurotransmitter release, whereas omega-conotoxin MVIIA had no effect. omega-Conotoxin CVID and MVIIA inhibited depolarization-activated Ba(2+) currents recorded from oocytes expressing N-type but not L- or R-type calcium channels. High affinity inhibition of the CVID-sensitive calcium channel was enhanced when position 10 of the omega-conotoxin was occupied by the smaller residue lysine as found in CVID instead of an arginine as found in MVIIA. Given that relatively small differences in the sequence of the N-type calcium channel alpha(1B) subunit can influence omega-conotoxin access (Feng, Z. P., Hamid, J., Doering, C., Bosey, G. M., Snutch, T. P., and Zamponi, G. W. (2001) J. Biol. Chem. 276, 15728-15735), it is likely that the calcium channel in preganglionic nerve terminals targeted by CVID is a N-type (Ca(v)2.2) calcium channel variant.
Organizational Affiliation: 
School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. dadams@mailbox.uq.edu.au