Preparation and activity of guanidinated or acetylated erabutoxins.

1. Erabutoxins, a, b and c, neurotoxic proteins of a sea snake Lacticauda semifasciata, were guanidinated with O-methylisourea. The amino groups of all the lysine residues and those at the N-termini of the toxins were modified. The lethal activity of the toxins decreased to 50% (erabutoxins a and b) or 17% (erabutoxin c) of the original value on the modification. The c.d. (circular dichroism) maximum at 227 nm of the modified toxins became lower, whereas the whole profile of the c.d. curve remained unchanged. 2. The amino groups of erabutoxin b were acetylated with acetic anhydride. All the five monoacetyl derivatives were isolated from the reaction products by CM-cellulose and Bio-Rex 70 column chromatography. [1-Nalpha-acetylarginine]-, [15-N6-acetyl-lysine]- and [51-N6-acetyl-lysine]-erabutoxin b retained the toxicity of the native toxin, whereas [27-N6-acetyl-lysine] and [47-N6-acetyl-lysine]-erabutoxin b were 17 and 8% active respectively. The overall profile of c.d. spectrum of erabutoxin b remained unchanged on the monoacetylation.