Recently, the Journal of of Proteomics published online the latest research article from Professor Wu Yingliang’ and Associate Professor Zhao Xiaolu’ teams. The research reveals the pharmaceutical basis of the processed scorpion medicinal material in traditional Chinese medicine.

The paper is entitled by Thermostable potassium channel-inhibiting neurotoxins in processed scorpion medicinal material revealed by proteomic analysis: Implications of its pharmaceutical basis in traditional Chinese medicine. Yang Fan and Wang Danya are co-first authors, and Wu Yingliang and Zhao Xiaolu are co-corresponding authors.

Processed scorpion has been used in traditional Chinese medicine based on the strategy of “Combat poison with poison” for more than one thousand years. However, its scientific basis is still unclare. By comprehensive mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis, the research teams found that there were dozens of peptides which the six conserved cysteine residues still retained in the processed scorpion medicinal material. These peptides could functionally act on potassium channels and preserve immunoregulatory activity both in vitro and in vivo. These findings help to understand the pharmaceutical basis underling the strategy of “combat poison with poison to cure diseases”, and open the traditional Chinese medicinal material as the source of active peptides for potential biodrug research and development.

The link of paper:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jprot.2019.103435