Conopeptides are a diverse family of peptides found in the venoms of marine cone snails and are used in prey capture and host defence. Because of their potent activity on a range of mammalian targets they have attracted interest as leads in drug design. Until recently most focus had been on studying conopeptides having activity at ion channels and related neurological targets but, with recent discoveries that some conopeptides might play hormonal roles, a new area of conopeptide research has opened. In this article we first summarize the canonical pharmaceutical families of Conus venom peptides and then focus on new research relating to hormone-like conopeptides and their potential applications. Finally, we briefly examine methods of chemically stabilizing conopeptides to improve their pharmacological properties. A summary is presented of conopeptides in clinical trials and a call for future work on hormone-like conopeptides.

中文翻译：

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类激素锥肽——药物设计的新工具

锥形肽是在海洋锥形蜗牛的毒液中发现的多种肽家族，用于捕获猎物和宿主防御。由于它们对一系列哺乳动物靶点具有有效的活性，它们作为药物设计的先导引起了人们的兴趣。直到最近，人们最关注的焦点一直是研究对离子通道和相关神经靶标具有活性的锥肽，但随着最近发现某些锥肽可能发挥激素作用，锥肽研究的新领域已经开启。在本文中，我们首先总结了芋螺毒肽的经典药物家族，然后重点关注与激素样芋螺肽相关的新研究及其潜在应用。最后，我们简要研究了化学稳定共肽以改善其药理特性的方法。对临床试验中的锥肽进行了总结，并呼吁未来对类激素锥肽进行研究。