Isolation of a toxin from Centruroides infamatus infamatus Koch scorpion venom that modifies Na+ permeability on chick dorsal root ganglion cells.

A novel toxin was isolated and characterized from the venom of the Mexican scorpion Centruroides infamatus infamatus. It has an apparent mol. wt of 7600, compatible with the presence of 66 amino acid residues per molecule. The N-terminal amino acid sequence was determined (up to residue 48) and showed approximately 95% similarity with toxins from other Mexican scorpions of the gnus Centruroides. Experiments conducted with chick dorsal root ganglion cells showed that toxin 1 is a Na+ channel effector, causing a decrease in the peak Na+ permeability, similar to decreases observed for typical beta-scorpion toxins.