Huwentoxin-IV
Venom Peptide / Pain ResearchAlso known as: HwTx-IV, HWTX-IV
Spider Venom PeptidesResearch phase: PreclinicalRegulatory: Not approved. Research compound and drug design scaffold.
Mechanism
Huwentoxin-IV is a spider venom peptide that blocks Nav1.7 sodium channels, which are essential for pain signaling. It is a lead compound for developing new non-opioid painkillers.
Technical detail
Huwentoxin-IV is a 35-amino acid inhibitor cystine knot (ICK) peptide from Haplopelma schmidti venom. It inhibits Nav1.7 (SCN9A) by trapping the voltage sensor in domain II. Nav1.7 is genetically validated as a pain target (loss-of-function = congenital insensitivity to pain), making HwTx-IV a key scaffold for analgesic drug design.