From bites to insights: Utilization of arachnid venoms in ion channel studies and their potential in therapeutic development

Mutations in the voltage-gated potassium channel Kv7.2-7.3 are associated with a wide spectrum of early-onset epileptic disorders. Patients with a gain of function mutation in the encoding KCNQ2 genes show severe developmental delay with prominent language impairment and autistic features, often accompanied by infantile- to childhood-onset epilepsy. [3] To treat this phenotype, selective negative modulators of the ion channel that shift the activation potential back towards normal activity are needed. Spider venoms
provide a rich source of peptides that target ion channel activity. [1]

References
[1] Chassagnon et el. PNAS. 2017. 114 (14) 3750-3755
[2] Redd, et al. Circulation. 2021. ;144:947–960
[3] Miceli, et al. J. Neurosci. 2015, 35, 3782–3