Skip to main content

Medical Subject Headings (thesaurus)

Search from vocabulary

Concept information

Preferred term

Conotoxins  

Type

  • mesh:Descriptor

Definition

  • Peptide neurotoxins from the marine fish-hunting snails of the genus CONUS. They contain 13 to 29 amino acids which are strongly basic and are highly cross-linked by disulfide bonds. There are three types of conotoxins, omega-, alpha-, and mu-. OMEGA-CONOTOXINS inhibit voltage-activated entry of calcium into the presynaptic membrane and therefore the release of ACETYLCHOLINE. Alpha-conotoxins inhibit the postsynaptic acetylcholine receptor. Mu-conotoxins prevent the generation of muscle action potentials. (From Concise Encyclopedia Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 3rd ed)

Broader concept

Narrower concepts

Entry terms

  • Conotoxin

Pharmacological Action(s)

In other languages

URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/JVR-CQDN45DH-5

Download this concept:

RDF/XML TURTLE JSON-LD Created 11/3/99, last modified 6/30/05