On October 27, Professor Sulan Luo of Guangxi University School of Medicine was invited by Professor Dalei Wu to be a guest at the Mountains and Seas: Knowing the Microorganism series of forums and gave a report entitled “Discovery of New Conotoxin Targeting Acetylcholine Receptor”. The lecture was chaired by Professor Dalei Wu.

Acetylcholine receptors are mammalian cell membrane proteins, ligand-gated ion channels, and have a variety of subtypes, mainly divided into muscle and neurotype, which can mediate many physiological functions of the central and peripheral nervous systems, including learning, memory, response, analgesia, and motor control. Acetylcholine receptors are responsible for activating the release of a variety of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, normethylephrine, serotonin, γ-aminobutyric acid, and are key targets for the screening and treatment of a large class of important disease drugs.

The newly discovered α*-conotoxin in Prof. Luo’s group can specifically block different subtypes of acetylcholine receptors, and can develop drugs for the treatment of different diseases, such as α9α10 can treat neuralgia, and α6/α3β2β3 can treat addiction. Professor Luo introduced in detail the whole process from the discovery of conotoxin, mechanism research to the final drug, and answered questions from teachers and students after the report.

Professor Sulan Luo, a doctoral supervisor, is a specially-appointed professor under the major talent project of the Ministry of Education, a national leading talent in scientific and technological innovation, the leader of an innovation team of the Ministry of Education, and a national outstanding professional and technical talent selected by the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Currently, she is the academic dean of the Medical College of Guangxi University and a teacher at the C-level position of Junwu Scholars. she has been engaged in scientific research and teaching in the field of marine drugs and biotechnology for a long time. Six original candidate new drugs with clear action targets have been screened and identified; the non-addictive, muscle-injectable strong analgesic α*-vesselworm toxin GEXIVA, as well as α-vesselworm toxins TxlB with anti-smoking and anti-drug effects, and TxlD with anti-small cell lung cancer effects, etc., have been discovered. More than 100 papers have been published in journals such as PNAS, J Biol Chem, and J MED Chem.