IASP PRF Seminar – Neurotoxic Venom Peptides from the Giant Australian Stinging Tree

Thank you

Thank you for attending our webinar. We hope you enjoyed our event.

Description

If you have registered for this webinar, please ensure you are logged in before proceeding to the live webinar. The log in appears in the top right corner. You will see your name displayed if you are already logged in.

PRF webinars are a complimentary IASP member benefit. If you are an IASP member, please log in using your IASP credentials, and register for this webinar for free.
If you are a nonmember and would like to access the webinar, the fee is USD $25. Please click “Add to Cart” to pay the fee and register. You will be asked to create a nonmember IASP account. If interested in joining IASP as a member, information on joining is included in the “Become an IASP Member” tab above. Questions about IASP membership can be directed to iaspdesk@iasp-pain.org.

The IASP Pain Research Forum will host a seminar with Irina Vetter, PhD, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. A Q&A session moderated by Sven-Eric Jordt, PhD, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, US, will follow the presentation.

Here is an abstract for the event:
Stinging trees from Australasia produce remarkably persistent and painful stings upon contact of their stiff epidermal hairs, called trichomes, with mammalian skin. Dendrocnide-induced acute pain typically lasts for several hours and intermittent painful flares can persist for days and weeks. Our recent work shows that the venoms of Australian Dendrocnide species contain heretofore unknown pain-inducing peptides that potently activate sensory neurons and delay inactivation of voltage-gated sodium channels. These neurotoxins localize specifically to the stinging hairs and are miniproteins of 4 kDa whose 3D structure is stabilized in an inhibitory cystine knot motif, a characteristic shared with neurotoxins found in spider and cone snail venoms. Our results provide an intriguing example of inter-kingdom convergent evolution of animal and plant venoms with shared modes of delivery, molecular structure and pharmacology.

Contributors

Irina Vetter, PhD

Irina Vetter, PhD, is the Director of the Centre for Pain Research at the University of Queensland. She obtained her PhD in 2007 from the School of Pharmacy, UQ, and conducted studies as a National Health and Medical Research postdoctoral fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute and at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience in the areas of axon guidance and venom peptide pharmacology. She is a recipient of an International Association for the Study of Pain Patrick Wall Young Investigator Award (2018) and has a strong background in neuropharmacology, pain models, toxicology and high-throughput screening. Her current main research interests lie in the fields of peripheral pain mechanisms, biodiscovery of venom peptide ion channel modulators and analgesic drug discovery.
Sven-Eric Jordt, PhD

Sven-Eric Jordt, PhD, is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine and faculty in Duke’s Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health program. Research in the Jordt laboratory focuses on mechanisms of chemical sensing and toxicity, leading to the discovery of TRP ion channels as targets of natural products, environmental irritants and toxic industrial chemicals eliciting pain, itch and respiratory irritation. Current projects focus on peripheral neuro-immune interactions in asthma and contact dermatitis, acute lung injury and chronic pain. The Jordt lab also investigates the irritant effects and toxicity of flavor chemicals in tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes. Sven received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award (ONES) by NIEHS, and the Leading Edge in Basic Science Award by the Society of Toxicology, among other awards.