Proteomic analysis of the venom of Conus flavidus from Red Sea reveals potential pharmacological applications

Background: Venomous marine cone snails produce unique neurotoxins called conopeptides or conotoxins, which are valuable for research and drug discovery. Characterizing Conus venom is important, especially for poorly studied species, as these tiny and steady molecules have considerable potential as research tools for detecting new pharmacological applications. In this study, a worm-hunting cone snail, Conus flavidus inhabiting the Red Sea coast were collected, dissected and the venom gland extraction was subjected to proteomic analysis to define the venom composition, and confirm the functional structure of conopeptides.

Results: Analysis of C. flavidus venom identified 117 peptide fragments and assorted them to conotoxin precursors and non-conotoxin proteins. In this procedure, 65 conotoxin precursors were classified and identified to 16 conotoxin precursors and hormone superfamilies. In the venom of C. flavidus, the four conotoxin superfamilies T, A, O2, and M were the most abundant peptides, accounting for 75.8% of the total conotoxin diversity. Additionally, 19 non-conotoxin proteins were specified in the venom, as well as several potentially biologically active peptides with putative applications.

Conclusion: Our research displayed that the structure of the C. flavidus-derived proteome is similar to other Conus species and includes toxins, ionic channel inhibitors, insulin-like peptides, and hyaluronidase. This study provides a foundation for discovering new conopeptides from C. flavidus venom for pharmaceutical use.