Limited Efficacy of α-Conopeptides, Vc1.1 and RgIA, To Inhibit Sensory Neuron Ca_VCurrent

Abstract

Better analgesic drugs are desperately needed to help physicians to treat pain. While many pre-clinical studies support the analgesic effects of α-conopeptides, Vc1.1 and RgIA, the mechanism is controversial. The development of improved α-conopeptide analgesics would be greatly facilitated by a complete understanding of the analgesic mechanism. However, we show that we cannot reproduce one of the proposed analgesic mechanisms, which is an irreversible inhibition of Ca_V current in a majority of sensory neurons.