Toxins in Drug Discovery and Pharmacology
A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2017) | Viewed by 171362
Special Issue Editor
Interests: peptide toxin; small molecules; voltage-gated ion channel; electrophysiology; pharmacology; venom; drug discovery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Venoms from marine and terrestrial animals (cone snails, scorpions, spiders, snakes, centipedes, cnidarian, etc.) can be seen as an untapped cocktail of biologically-active compounds, being increasingly recognized as new emerging source of peptide-based therapeutics. Venomous animals are considered to be specialized predators that have evolved the most sophisticated peptide chemistry and neuropharmacology for their own biological purposes by producing venoms that contains a structural and functional diversity of neurotoxins. These neurotoxins have shown to be highly selective ligands for a wide range of ion channels and receptors. Therefore, they represent interesting lead compounds for the development of, for example, analgesics, anti-cancer drugs, drugs for neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, etc.
This Special Issue of Toxins aims to provide a comprehensive look at toxins and toxin inspired leads and will focus on the mechanism of action, structure-function and evolution of pharmacological interesting venom components, including but not limited to, recent developments relating to the emergence of venoms as an underutilized source of highly evolved bioactive peptides with clinical potential.
Dr. Steve Peigneur
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
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sodium channels
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potassium channels
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calcium channels
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chloride ion channels
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TRP channels
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ASIC channels
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opiate receptors
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acetylcholine receptors
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NMDA receptor
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Antibiotics
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antimicrobial peptides
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botulinum toxins
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cone snail venom peptides
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spider venom peptides
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amphibian peptides
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sea anemone toxins
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scorpion toxins
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snake toxins
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centipede toxins
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