DETERMINATION OF THE 3-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE OF IBERIOTOXIN IN SOLUTION BY H-1 NUCLEAR-MAGNETIC-RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY

The solution structure of chemically synthesized iberiotoxin, a scorpion toxin that blocks Ca2+-activated K+ channels, has been determined using 2D H-1 NMR spectroscopy. Analysis of the NOEs, coupling constants, and HN-DN exchange rates indicates the structure consists of an antiparallel beta-sheet from residues 25 to 36, with a type 1 turn at residues 30-31, and a helix from residues 13 to 21. The carboxyl-terminal residues form a short, and distorted, third strand of the sheet. The NMR data are consistent with disulfide bonds from residues 7 to 28, 13 to 33, and 17 to 35. The disulfide bridging presents the same profile as in other scorpion toxins, where a Cys-X-Cys sequence in a strand of sheet forms two disulfide bonds to a Cys-X-X-X-Cys sequence in a helix. Three-dimensional structures were generated using the torsion angle space program PEGASUS. The best ten structures had an average rmsd over all pairwise comparisons of 1.49 angstrom. The average rmsd to a calculated average structure is 1.0 angstrom. The resulting structures appear very similar to those of charybdotoxin, a related scorpion toxin.