title: Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors have ligand-specific attachment point patterns.
abstract: Employing a panel of synthetic peptides as representative structural elements of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor from Torpedo electric organ, we recently identified three sequence regions of the receptor (alpha 55-74, alpha 134-153 and alpha 181-200) serving as subsites for the binding of high molecular weight antagonists of acetylcholine (Conti-Tronconi et al. 1990). The relative binding affinities to these subsites of alpha-bungarotoxin and three competitive antibodies varied in a ligand-specific fashion. Employing a set of homologous synthetic peptides differing from alpha 181-200 by the exchange of single amino acid residues along the sequence, we now find that ligand binding crucially depends on the presence of particular amino acids within the subsite while others influence binding only marginally if at all. The existence of ligand-specific attachment points may account for the wide range in binding and kinetic parameters, pharmacological specificity and distinct mean open times of the receptor-integral cation channel observed for cholinergic ligands.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Physiologische Chemie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, West Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maelicke
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schröder
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reinhardt-Maelicke
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McLane
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Diethelm
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Conti-Tronconi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D008024:Ligands; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic / Q000737:chemistry*; D014101:Torpedo
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D008024:Ligands; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic