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1: FEBS Lett. 1997 Aug 4;412(3):573-7.Click here to read Links

Crystal structure of vipoxin at 2.0 A: an example of regulation of a toxic function generated by molecular evolution.

Perbandt M, Wilson JC, Eschenburg S, Mancheva I, Aleksiev B, Genov N, Willingmann P, Weber W, Singh TP, Betzel C.

Institute of Biochemistry, Free University of Berlin, Germany.

Vipoxin is the main toxic component in the venom of the Bulgarian snake Vipera ammodytes meridionalis, the most toxic snake in Europe. Vipoxin is a complex between a toxic phospholipase A2 (PLA2) and a non-toxic protein inhibitor. The structure is of genetic interest due to the high degree of sequence homology (62%) between the two functionally different components. The structure shows that the formation of the complex in vipoxin is significantly different to that seen in many known structures of phospholipases and contradicts the assumptions made in earlier studies. The modulation of PLA2 activity is of great pharmacological interest, and the present structure will be a model for structure-based drug design.

PMID: 9276469 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Structures reported by this article

  • Vipoxin Complex
    PDB: 1AOK
    Source: Vipera ammodytes meridionalis
    Method: X-Ray Diffraction | Resolution: 2 Å