Discovery of a Potent Conorfamide from Conus episcopatus Using a Novel Zebrafish Larvae Assay

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Gabriel D Bosse
  • Cristoval Urcino
  • Maren Watkins
  • Paula Flórez Salcedo
  • Sabrina Kozel
  • Kevin Chase
  • April Cabang
  • Samuel S Espino
  • Helena Safavi-Hemami
  • Shrinivasan Raghuraman
  • Baldomero M Olivera
  • Randall T Peterson
  • Joanna Gajewiak

Natural products such as conotoxins have tremendous potential as tools for biomedical research and for the treatment of different human diseases. Conotoxins are peptides present in the venoms of predatory cone snails that have a rich diversity of pharmacological functions. One of the major bottlenecks in natural products research is the rapid identification and evaluation of bioactive molecules. To overcome this limitation, we designed a set of light-induced behavioral assays in zebrafish larvae to screen for bioactive conotoxins. We used this screening approach to test several unique conotoxins derived from different cone snail clades and discovered that a conorfamide from Conus episcopatus, CNF-Ep1, had the most dramatic alterations in the locomotor behavior of zebrafish larvae. Interestingly, CNF-Ep1 is also bioactive in several mouse assay systems when tested in vitro and in vivo. Our novel screening platform can thus accelerate the identification of bioactive marine natural products, and the first compound discovered using this assay has intriguing properties that may uncover novel neuronal circuitry.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Natural Products
Volume84
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)1232-1243
ISSN0163-3864
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

ID: 259041603