Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Designated organic active ingredient containing – Peptide containing doai
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-28
2004-07-13
Bugaisky, Gabriele (Department: 1653)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Designated organic active ingredient containing
Peptide containing doai
C514S002600, C530S300000, C530S324000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06762165
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to relatively short peptides (termed O-Superfamily conotoxins herein), about 20-40 residues in length, which are naturally available in minute amounts in the venom of the cone snails or analogous to the naturally available peptides, and which preferably include three disulfide bonds.
The publications and other materials used herein to illuminate the background of the invention, and in particular, cases to provide additional details respecting the practice, are incorporated by reference, and for convenience are referenced in the following text by author and date and are listed alphabetically by author in the appended bibliography.
Conus is a genus of predatory marine gastropods (snails) which envenomate their prey. Venomous cone snails use a highly developed apparatus to deliver their cocktail of toxic conotoxins into their prey. In fish-eating species such as Conus magus the cone detects the presence of the fish using chemosensors in its siphon. When close enough the cone extends its proboscis and impales the fish with a hollow harpoon-like tooth containing venom. This immobilizes the fish and enables the cone snail to wind it into its mouth via the tooth held at the end of its proboscis. Prey capture is accomplished through a sophisticated arsenal of peptides which target specific ion channel and receptor subtypes. Each Con us species venom appears to contain a unique set of 50-200 peptides. The composition of the venom differs greatly between species and between individual snails within each species, each optimally evolved to paralyze its prey. The active components of the venom are small peptide toxins, typically 10-30 amino acid residues in length and are typically highly constrained peptides due to their high density of disulphide bonds.
The venoms consist of a large number of different peptide components that when separated exhibit a range of biological activities: when injected into mice they elicit a range of physiological responses from shaking to depression. The paralytic components of the venom that have been the focus of recent investigation are the &agr;-, &ohgr;- and &mgr;-conotoxins. All of these conotoxins act by preventing neuronal communication, but each targets a different aspect of the process to achieve this. The &agr;-conotoxins target nicotinic ligand gated channels, the &mgr;-conotoxins target the voltage-gated sodium channels and the &ohgr;-conotoxins target the voltage-gated calcium channels (Olivera et al., 1985; Olivera et al., 1990). For example a linkage has been established between &agr;-, &agr;A- & &psgr;-conotoxins and the nicotinic ligand-gated ion channel; &ohgr;-conotoxins and the voltage-gated calcium channel; &mgr;-conotoxins and the voltage-gated sodium channel; &dgr;-conotoxins and the voltage-gated sodium channel; &kgr;-conotoxins and the voltage-gated potassium channel; conantokins and the ligand-gated glutamate (NMDA) channel. Five &dgr;-conotoxins have been described: GmVIA (U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,264); PVIA (U.S. Pat. No. 5,739,276); TxVIA (Hillyard et al., 1989; Fainzilber et al., 1991); TxVIB (Fainzilber et al., 1991); NgVIA (Fainzilber et al., 1995); and TxIIA (Nakamura et al., 1996).
However, the structure and function of only a small minority of these peptides have been determined to date. For peptides where function has been determined, three classes of targets have been elucidated: voltage-gated ion channels; ligand-gated ion channels, and G-protein-linked receptors.
Conus peptides which target voltage-gated ion channels include those that delay the inactivation of sodium channels, as well as blockers specific for sodium channels, calcium channels and potassium channels. Peptides that target ligand-gated ion channels include antagonists of NMDA and serotonin receptors, as well as competitive and noncompetitive nicotinic receptor antagonists. Peptides which act on G-protein receptors include neurotensin and vasopressin receptor agonists. The unprecedented pharmaceutical selectivity of conotoxins is at least in part defined by a specific disulfide bond frameworks combined with hypervariable amino acids within disulfide loops (for a review see McIntosh et al., 1998).
Potassium channels comprise a large and diverse group of proteins that, through maintenance of the cellular membrane potential, are fundamental in normal biological function. These channels are vital in controlling the resting membrane potential in excitable cells and can be broadly sub-divided into three classes: voltage-gated K
+
channels, Ca
2+
activated K
+
channels and ATP-sensitive K
+
channels. Many disorders are associated with abnormal flow of potassium ions through these channels. The identification of agents which would regulate the flow of potassium ions through each of these channel types would be useful in treating disorders associated with such abnormal flow.
It is desired to identify additional conotoxin peptides having activities of the above conopeptides, as well as conotoxin peptides having additional activities.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to relatively short peptides (termed O-Superfamily conotoxins herein), about 20-40 residues in length, which are naturally available in minute amounts in the venom of the cone snails or analogous to the naturally available peptides, and which preferably include three disulfide bonds. The O-superfamily conotoxins include &ohgr;-conotxins, &kgr;-conotoxins, &dgr;-conotoxins, &mgr;O-conotoxins and GS conotoxin.
Thus, in one embodiment, the present invention is directed to the conotoxin peptides set forth in Table 2 and the corresponding peptides set forth in Table 1.
In a second embodiment, the present invention is directed to all of the propeptides and nucleic acid sequences encoding the propeptides or peptides set forth in Table 1.
In a third embodiment, the present invention is directed to derivatives or pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the conotoxin peptides disclosed herein. Examples of derivatives include peptides in which the Arg residues may be substituted by Lys, ornithine, homoargine, nor-Lys, N-methyl-Lys, N,N-dimethyl-Lys, N,N,N-trimethyl-Lys or any synthetic basic amino acid; the Lys residues may be substituted by Arg, ornithine, homoargine, nor-Lys, or any synthetic basic amino acid; the Tyr residues may be substituted with
125
I-Tyr, meta-Tyr, ortho-Tyr, nor-Tyr, mono-halo-Tyr, di-halo-Tyr, O-sulpho-Tyr, O-phospho-Tyr, nitro-Tyr or any synthetic hydroxy containing amino acid; the Ser residues may be substituted with Thr or any synthetic hydroxylated amino acid; the Thr residues may be substituted with Ser or any synthetic hydroxylated amino acid; the Phe residues may be substituted with any synthetic aromatic amino acid; the Trp residues may be substituted with Trp (D), neo-Trp, halo-Trp (D or L) or any aromatic synthetic amino acid; and the Asn, Ser, Thr or Hyp residues may be glycosylated. The halogen may be iodo, chloro, fluoro or bromo; preferably iodo for halogen substituted-Tyr and bromo for halogen-substituted Trp. The Tyr residues may also be substituted with the 3-hydroxyl or 2-hydroxyl isomers (meta-Tyr or ortho-Tyr, respectively) and corresponding O-sulpho- and O-phospho-derivatives. The acidic amino acid residues may be substituted with any synthetic acidic amino acid, e.g., tetrazolyl derivatives of Gly and Ala. The aliphatic amino acids may be substituted by synthetic derivatives bearing non-natural aliphatic branched or linear side chains C
n
H
2n+2
up to and including n=8. The Leu residues may be substituted with Leu (D). The Glu residues may be substituted with Gla. The Gla residues may be substituted with Glu. The Met residues may be substituted with norleucine (Nle). The Cys residues may be in D or L configuration and may optionally be substituted with homocysteine (D or L).
Examples of synthetic aromatic amino acid include, but are not limited to, nitro-Phe, 4-substituted-Phe wherein the substituent is C
1
-C
3
alkyl, carboxyl, hyrdroxymethyl, sulphomethyl, halo, phenyl,
Cartier G. Edward
Hillyard David R.
Jones Robert M.
Layer Richard T.
McIntosh J. Michael
Bugaisky Gabriele
Rothwell Figg Ernst & Manbeck p.c.
University of Utah Research Foundation
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