Tiny Changes Make a Drug Binding Pocket (IMAGE)
Caption
X-ray crystallography by Furukawa and team show how very slight changes in structure between two variants of one of the NMDA receptor's domains can affect drug binding. On the left, a binding pocket for the drug ifenprodil created in the interface between two subdomains of the receptor, called GluN1b and GluN2B, is shown above in brown, and rendered below as it would appear visually. Tiny structural differences in the latter subdomain, in a variant called GluN2A, collapse the space between the two subdomains and prevent ifenprodil from binding. Drugs generally cause fewer side effects when they are extremely specific in their binding sites.
Credit
Furukawa Lab, CSHL
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