Nature Communications (Apr 2023)

Pain-causing stinging nettle toxins target TMEM233 to modulate NaV1.7 function

  • Sina Jami,
  • Jennifer R. Deuis,
  • Tabea Klasfauseweh,
  • Xiaoyang Cheng,
  • Sergey Kurdyukov,
  • Felicity Chung,
  • Andrei L. Okorokov,
  • Shengnan Li,
  • Jiangtao Zhang,
  • Ben Cristofori-Armstrong,
  • Mathilde R. Israel,
  • Robert J. Ju,
  • Samuel D. Robinson,
  • Peng Zhao,
  • Lotten Ragnarsson,
  • Åsa Andersson,
  • Poanna Tran,
  • Vanessa Schendel,
  • Kirsten L. McMahon,
  • Hue N. T. Tran,
  • Yanni K.-Y. Chin,
  • Yifei Zhu,
  • Junyu Liu,
  • Theo Crawford,
  • Saipriyaa Purushothamvasan,
  • Abdella M. Habib,
  • David A. Andersson,
  • Lachlan D. Rash,
  • John N. Wood,
  • Jing Zhao,
  • Samantha J. Stehbens,
  • Mehdi Mobli,
  • Andreas Leffler,
  • Daohua Jiang,
  • James J. Cox,
  • Stephen G. Waxman,
  • Sulayman D. Dib-Hajj,
  • G. Gregory Neely,
  • Thomas Durek,
  • Irina Vetter

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37963-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 1
pp. 1 – 16

Abstract

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Abstract Voltage-gated sodium (NaV) channels are critical regulators of neuronal excitability and are targeted by many toxins that directly interact with the pore-forming α subunit, typically via extracellular loops of the voltage-sensing domains, or residues forming part of the pore domain. Excelsatoxin A (ExTxA), a pain-causing knottin peptide from the Australian stinging tree Dendrocnide excelsa, is the first reported plant-derived NaV channel modulating peptide toxin. Here we show that TMEM233, a member of the dispanin family of transmembrane proteins expressed in sensory neurons, is essential for pharmacological activity of ExTxA at NaV channels, and that co-expression of TMEM233 modulates the gating properties of NaV1.7. These findings identify TMEM233 as a previously unknown NaV1.7-interacting protein, position TMEM233 and the dispanins as accessory proteins that are indispensable for toxin-mediated effects on NaV channel gating, and provide important insights into the function of NaV channels in sensory neurons.