Muscarinic toxin 7 (MT7) is one member of a family of small peptides of 65

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha a ...

residues derived from the venom of African

mamba Mambas are fast moving highly venomous snakes of the genus ''Dendroaspis'' (which literally means "tree asp") in the family Elapidae. Four extant species are recognised currently; three of those four species are essentially arboreal and green ...

snakes (Dendroaspis angusticeps), which mainly target M1-subtype of

muscarinic receptor Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, or mAChRs, are acetylcholine receptors that form G protein-coupled receptor, G protein-coupled receptor complexes in the cell membranes of certain neurons and other Cell (biology), cells. They play several r ...

. Muscarinic toxins like the nicotinic toxins have the three-finger fold structure, characteristic of the large superfamily of toxins that act at cholinergic synapses. MT7 is likely to bind to the human M1 receptor in its dimer form with the tips of MT7 loops II and III contacting one hM1 protomer and the tip of loop I binds to the other protomer.

References

{{Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor modulators Muscarinic antagonists Proteins Vertebrate toxins