Journal
TOXINS
Volume 8, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/toxins8050129
Keywords
voltage-gated sodium channel; benzoyl saxitoxin analogs; molecular docking; binding affinity
Categories
Funding
- Instituto Politecnico Nacional projects [SIP20140252, SIP 2016-1180]
- Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia [CONACYT-SEP 132353, 178227]
- CYTED [214RT0482]
- CIBNOR [PC0.10, PC0.11]
- BEIFI-IPN [CONACYT 65354]
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Saxitoxin (STX) and its analogs are paralytic alkaloid neurotoxins that block the voltage-gated sodium channel pore (Na-v), impeding passage of Na+ ions into the intracellular space, and thereby preventing the action potential in the peripheral nervous system and skeletal muscle. The marine dinoflagellate Gymnodinium catenatum produces an array of such toxins, including the recently discovered benzoyl analogs, for which the mammalian toxicities are essentially unknown. We subjected STX and its analogs to a theoretical docking simulation based upon two alternative tri-dimensional models of the Na(v)1.4 to find a relationship between the binding properties and the known mammalian toxicity of selected STX analogs. We inferred hypothetical toxicities for the benzoyl analogs from the modeled values. We demonstrate that these toxins exhibit different binding modes with similar free binding energies and that these alternative binding modes are equally probable. We propose that the principal binding that governs ligand recognition is mediated by electrostatic interactions. Our simulation constitutes the first in silico modeling study on benzoyl-type paralytic toxins and provides an approach towards a better understanding of the mode of action of STX and its analogs.
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