Summary
Alboluxin, a potent platelet activator, was purified from Trimeresurus albolabris venom with a mass of 120 kDa non-reduced and, after reduction, subunits of 17 and
24 kDa. Alboluxin induced a tyrosine phosphorylation profile in platelets that resembles
those produced by collagen and convulxin, involving the time dependent tyrosine phosphorylation
of Fc receptor γ chain (Fcγ), phospholipase Cγ2 (PLCγ2), LAT and p72SYK. Antibodies against both GPIb and GPVI inhibited platelet aggregation induced by
alboluxin, whereas antibodies against α2β1 had no effect. Inhibition of αIIbβ3 reduced the aggregation response to alboluxin, as well as tyrosine phosphorylation
of platelet proteins, showing that activation of αIIbβ3 and binding of fibrinogen are involved in alboluxin-induced platelet aggregation
and it is not simply agglutination. N-terminal sequence data from the β-subunit of
alboluxin indicates that it belongs to the snake C-type lectin family. The C-type
lectin subunits are larger than usual possibly due to post-translational modifications
such as glycosylation. Alboluxin is a hexameric (αβ)3 snake C-type lectin which activates platelets via both GPIb and GPVI.
Keywords
Alboluxin - platelet aggregation - GPIb - GPVI - tyrosine phosphorylation