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The Separation of Venom Apparatus, Purification and Identification Method of Conotoxins in Cone Snail Conus terebra thomasi
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Parva Dehghani   , Saber Khodabande , Iraj Nabipour |
| , surp78@gmail.com |
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Abstract: (9431 Views) |
| Cone snails (genus: Conus) are groups of marine mollusks that make a group of toxin compounds
(conotoxins) for different purposes. Several studies proved the medical properties of conotoxins and
existence of different toxic compounds in different parts of venom apparatus. So, recognizing the simplest
and the most suitable method for separating the venom apparatus and purification of conotoxins is
necessary. For this purpose, several specimens of Conus terebra thomasi were collected from the Northern
sandy coast of Larak Island and the shells of samples were cracked by vice. After pulling out the snail
from its shell, drawing out of the venom apparatus was done by cutting the posterior section of foot
muscle. Venom apparatus was divided into three parts, venom bulb, proximal and distal venom duct and
each sample was freeze-dried. Extraction was done by three solvents (Acetone 100%, A mixture of
Acetone100%-Methanol20% and Phosphate Buffered Saline) and the total protein of each extract was
determined by Bradford protein assay. The results showed that the amount of total protein in two extracts
(Acetone and Acetone-Methanol) were very low and cannot be measured by this method, but it is
measurable in third extract (venom bulb: 38.79, proximal venom duct: 52.4 and distal venom duct: 46.01
mg/g dried tissue). By using electrophoresis method, different conopeptides were shown in different parts
of venom apparatus. Also, the most suitable solvent between the checked solvents in this study is
phosphate buffered saline because of high concentration of extracted conopeptides, and reducing the risk
of tissue damage. Meanwhile, the extracted compounds are suitable for investigating their bioactivity. |
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| Keywords: Conus, Conotoxin, Venom apparatus, Dissection, Persian Gulf |
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Full-Text [PDF 131 kb]
(2836 Downloads)
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Type of Study: Research/ Original/ Regular Article |
Received: 2015/03/16 | Accepted: 2015/03/16 | ePublished: 2015/03/16
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