Solving the alpha-conotoxin folding problem: efficient selenium-directed on-resin generation of more potent and stable nicotinic acetylcholine receptor antagonists.

Alpha-conotoxins are tightly folded miniproteins that antagonize nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) with high specificity for diverse subtypes. Here we report the use of selenocysteine in a supported phase method to direct native folding and produce alpha-conotoxins efficiently with improved biophysical properties. By replacing complementary cysteine pairs with selenocysteine pairs on an amphiphilic resin, we were able to chemically direct all five structural subclasses of alpha-conotoxins exclusively into their native folds. X-ray analysis at 1.4 A resolution of alpha-selenoconotoxin PnIA confirmed the isosteric character of the diselenide bond and the integrity of the alpha-conotoxin fold. The alpha-selenoconotoxins exhibited similar or improved potency at rat diaphragm muscle and alpha3beta4, alpha7, and alpha1beta1 deltagamma nAChRs expressed in Xenopus oocytes plus improved disulfide bond scrambling stability in plasma. Together, these results underpin the development of more stable and potent nicotinic antagonists suitable for new drug therapies, and highlight the application of selenocysteine technology more broadly to disulfide-bonded peptides and proteins.

Role of calcium and vesicle-docking proteins in remobilising dormant neuromuscular junctions in desert frogs.

Despite prolonged immobility the desert frog, Cyclorana alboguttata, suffers little impairment in muscle function. To determine compensatory mechanisms at neuromuscular junctions, transmitter release was examined along primary terminals in C. alboguttata iliofibularis muscle. Using extracellular recording we found the amplitudes of evoked endplate currents were significantly smaller in dormant frogs. In active frogs we identified two negatively sloping proximal-distal gradients of transmitter frequency and quantal content; a shallow proximal-distal gradient with low probability of transmitter release (<0.2) and a second much steeper proximal-distal gradient for quantal content with high probability release sites (>0.6). During aestivation, only a shallow gradient was identified. The high probability release sites in control frogs were inhibited during aestivation by a mechanism that could be reversed by (1) increasing the extracellular calcium concentration, and (2) increasing the frequency of stimulation. This suggests that transmitter vesicles are available during aestivation but not released. We quantified expression of messenger RNA transcripts coding for the transmitter vesicle-docking proteins synaptotagmin 1, syntaxin 1B and UNC-13. All three were rare transcripts maintained at control values during aestivation. Neuromuscular remobilisation after dormancy in C. alboguttata is more likely a product of rapidly reversible physiologic mechanisms than reorganisations of the neuromuscular transcriptome.

Effect of prolonged inactivity on skeletal motor nerve terminals during aestivation in the burrowing frog, Cyclorana alboguttata.

This study examined the effect of prolonged inactivity, associated with aestivation, on neuromuscular transmission in the green-striped burrowing frog, Cyclorana alboguttata. We compared the structure and function of the neuromuscular junctions on the iliofibularis muscle from active C. alboguttata and from C. alboguttata that had been aestivating for 6 months. Despite the prolonged period of immobility, there was no significant difference in the shape of the terminals (primary, secondary or tertiary branches) or the length of primary terminal branches between aestivators and non-aestivators. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the membrane potentials of muscle fibres or in miniature end plate potential (EPP) frequency and amplitude. However, there was a significant decrease in evoked transmitter release characterised by a 56% decrease in mean EPP amplitude, and a 29% increase in the failure rate of nerve terminal action potentials to evoke transmitter release. The impact of this suite of neuromuscular characteristics on the locomotor performance of emergent frogs is discussed.

Neuromuscular synapses mediate motor axon branching and motoneuron survival during the embryonic period of programmed cell death.

The embryonic period of motoneuron programmed cell death (PCD) is marked by transient motor axon branching, but the role of neuromuscular synapses in regulating motoneuron number and axonal branching is not known. Here, we test whether neuromuscular synapses are required for the quantitative association between reduced skeletal muscle contraction, increased motor neurite branching, and increased motoneuron survival. We achieved this by comparing agrin and rapsyn mutant mice that lack acetylcholine receptor (AChR) clusters. There were significant reductions in nerve-evoked skeletal muscle contraction, increases in intramuscular axonal branching, and increases in spinal motoneuron survival in agrin and rapsyn mutant mice compared with their wild-type littermates at embryonic day 18.5 (E18.5). The maximum nerve-evoked skeletal muscle contraction was reduced a further 17% in agrin mutants than in rapsyn mutants. This correlated to an increase in motor axon branch extension and number that was 38% more in agrin mutants than in rapsyn mutants. This suggests that specializations of the neuromuscular synapse that ensure efficient synaptic transmission and muscle contraction are also vital mediators of motor axon branching. However, these increases in motor axon branching did not correlate with increases in motoneuron survival when comparing agrin and rapsyn mutants. Thus, agrin-induced synaptic specializations are required for skeletal muscle to effectively control motoneuron numbers during embryonic development.