Gabor Tajti, Gyorgy Panyi and their Australian colleagues described the potential application of venom derived KV1.3 voltage-gated ion channel blockers in certain autoimmune diseases, where the possible application is not in mainstream research focus. In their review article they detail the potential applicability of such peptides in inflammatory bowel diseases, neuroinflammatory conditions, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as fibrotic liver and kidney diseases. Strategies for facilitating the entry of peptides to the central nervous system is also summarized, given that this is a pre-requisite for the treatment of the aforementioned neuroinflammatory diseases. By systematically reviewing the literature they also report the recently published agents and peptides inhibiting KV1.3 channel, as well as the recent advances in the clinical development of the KV1.3-blocking ShK (peptide isolated from Stichodactyla helianthus-sea anemone) derivatives.
Their paper was published in the Biochemical Pharmacology journal https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bcp.2020.114146 (IF: 4.96).