ArticlePloS one2011
Inhibition of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors by cobra venom α-neurotoxins: is there a perspective in lung cancer treatment?
Article in PloS one, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of acetylcholine and its receptors in tumor immune regulation: mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets.Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- Targeting Alpha7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Lung Cancer: Insights, Challenges, and Therapeutic Strategies.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2024Review
- Snake Venom: A Promising Source of Neurotoxins Targeting Voltage-Gated Potassium Channels.Toxins · 2023Review
- Modified Snake α-Neurotoxin Averts β-Amyloid Binding to α7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor and Reverses Cognitive Deficits in Alzheimer's Disease Mice.Molecular neurobiology · 2021Article
- Immunological Responses to Envenomation.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Review
- Article
- APS8 Delays Tumor Growth in Mice by Inducing Apoptosis of Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells Expressing High Number of α7 Nicotinic Receptors.Marine drugs · 2018Article
- Addressing the Issue of Tetrodotoxin Targeting.Marine drugs · 2018Review
- Pharmacoinformatic Approach to Explore the Antidote Potential of Phytochemicals on Bungarotoxin from Indian Krait,Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2018Article
- Cholinergic Targets in Lung Cancer.Current pharmaceutical design · 2016Review
- Antitumor activity of cobrotoxin in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells and following transplantation in nude mice.Oncology letters · 2014Article
- Pathogen-inspired drug delivery to the central nervous system.Tissue barriers · 2014Article
- Nicotine-mediated cell proliferation and tumor progression in smoking-related cancers.Molecular cancer research : MCR · 2014Review
- [Role of autophagy on cobrotoxin induced cell death of A549].Zhongguo fei ai za zhi = Chinese journal of lung cancer · 2013Article
- Neurotoxicity in snakebite--the limits of our knowledge.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2013Review
- Walterinnesia aegyptia venom combined with silica nanoparticles enhances the functioning of normal lymphocytes through PI3K/AKT, NFκB and ERK signaling.Lipids in health and disease · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Nicotine exerts its oncogenic effects through the binding to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and the activation of downstream pathways that block apoptosis and promote neo-angiogenesis. The nAChRs of the α7 subtype are present on a wide variety of cancer cells and their inhibition by cobra venom neurotoxins has been proposed in several articles and reviews as a potential innovative lung cancer therapy. However, since part of the published results was recently retracted, we believe that the antitumoral activity of cobra venom neurotoxins needs to be independently re-evaluated.We determined the activity of α-neurotoxins from Naja atra (short-chain neurotoxin, α-cobrotoxin) and Naja kaouthia (long-chain neurotoxin, α-cobratoxin) in vitro by cytotoxicity measurements in 5 lung cancer cell lines, by colony formation assay with α7nAChRs expressing and non-expressing cell lines and in vivo by assessing tumor growth in an orthotopic Non-Obese Diabetic/Severe Combined Immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mouse model system utilizing different treatment schedules and dosages.No statistically significant reduction in tumor growth was observed in the treatment arms in comparison to the control for both toxins. Paradoxically α-cobrotoxin from Naja atra showed the tendency to enhance tumor growth although, even in this case, the statistical significance was not reached.In conclusion our results show that, in contrast with other reports, the nAChR inhibitors α-cobratoxin from N. kaouthia and α-cobrotoxin from N. atra neither suppressed tumor growth nor prolonged the survival of the treated animals.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.