Engineering a Transmitter Binding Site

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT A fundamental principle of biomedicine is that small molecules can bind to specific receptors to trigger physiological responses. We seek to understand the energetic nature of the molecular events that occur at the neurotransmitter binding sites of the neuromuscular acetylcholine receptor when this channel 'gates' between non-conducting and ion-conducting conformations. This knowledge will help us understand the biophysical mechanisms of ligand-protein complexes, and will advance our ability to design new drugs for nicotinic (and other) receptors. Structure-based drug discovery should incorporate the fact that drug action depends on the differential binding of ligands to inactive vs. active conformations of a receptor. To address this point we will use single-channel electrophysiology and kinetic analysis to study unliganded gating, which will allow us to measure all of the salient activation equilibrium constants and to ascertain the energetic contributions of the side chains at each of the two transmitter binding sites. We will also estimate differential binding energies for small ligand probes, in both wild type and mutant receptors. Eventually, this knowledge will be used to engineer acetylcholine receptors that respond predictably to arbitrary ligands.