Cloning and Heterologous Expression of Human nAChRs and a Unique Spider Venom Toxin

Author

Christine M. Vega, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

First Advisor

Ying Jia

Second Advisor

Julie Mustard

Third Advisor

Saydur Rahman

Abstract

Drug development research has long focused on synthesizing novel therapeutics while overlooking isolation from naturally available sources. Recently, the discovery of the therapeutic effects of highly bioavailable animal venom caused the field of venom research to soar in popularity. Animal venom serves as a natural, sophisticated tool optimized over millions of years by evolution with the ability to bind to ion channels such as nAChRs, non-specific ligand-gated ion channels distributed throughout the human nervous system, with high selectivity and specificity. However, purifying individual venom toxins from crude venom is challenging due to its availability. Therefore, synthesizing large quantities of venom toxins economically and with maximum efficiency remains a critical issue in the field of biomedical research. Herein, we clone a transcript encoding a novel peptide named P1A10 from a mixed tarantula venom gland cDNA library for heterologous expression to generate large quantities of recombinantly expressed venom toxin.

Comments

Copyright 2025 Christine M. Vega. https://proquest.com/docview/3240591652

Recommended Citation

Vega, C. M. (2025). Cloning and Heterologous Expression of Human nAChRs and a Unique Spider Venom Toxin [Master's thesis, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley]. ScholarWorks @ UTRGV. https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/etd/1674