The NMDA ionotropic glutamate receptor is ubiquitous in mammalian central neurons. Because partial agonists bind to the same site as glutamate but induce less channel activation, these compounds provide an opportunity to probe the mechanism of activation of NMDA-type glutamate receptors. Molecular dynamics simulations and site-directed mutagenesis demonstrate that the partial agonist homoquinol...

One of the many challenging tasks of protein design is the introduction of a completely new function into an existing protein scaffold. In this study, we introduce a new computational procedure OptGraft for placing a novel binding pocket onto a protein structure so as its geometry is minimally perturbed. This is accomplished by introducing a two-level procedure where we first identify where are...

conformations and electronic properties of a series of imidazobenzodiazepines are investigated by am1 semi-empirical quantum mechanics method. it is shown that substitution of cl in position 7 instead of 8, changes the geometry of the seven membered lactam ring; this may put the n5 nitrogen in a better positon to act as a hydrogen bond acceptor, and the phenyl ring in position 6 is probably mor...

Human mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK)-interacting kinases 1 and 2 (Mnk1 and Mnk2) target the translational machinery by phosphorylation of the eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E). Here, we present the 2.1 A crystal structure of a nonphosphorylated Mnk2 fragment that encompasses the kinase domain. The results show Mnk-specific features such as a zinc binding motif and an atypical op...

Alphavirus budding from the plasma membrane is initiated by the specific interaction of the nucleocapsid with the cytoplasmic domain of the glycoprotein E2. It was proposed (Lee et al., Structure 4:531-541, 1996) that binding of the capsid protein residues 108 to 110 (the "N-terminal arm" residues) to a hydrophobic pocket on the surface of the neighboring capsid protein in the crystal structure...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE β2/3-subunit-selective modulation of GABAA receptors by valerenic acid (VA) is determined by the presence of transmembrane residue β2/3N265. Currently, it is not known whether β2/3N265 is part of VA's binding pocket or is involved in the transduction pathway of VA's action. The aim of this study was to clarify the localization of VA's binding pocket on GABAA receptors. ...

The association of spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk), a central tyrosine kinase in B cell signaling, with Vav SH2 domain is controlled by phosphorylation of two closely spaced tyrosines in Syk linker B: Y342 and Y346. Previous studies established both singly phosphorylated and doubly phosphorylated forms play a role in signaling. The structure of the doubly phosphorylated form identified a new recog...

mechanism of the binding of lomefloxacin (lmf) with human serum albumin has been studied at physiological ph (7.4) using fluorescence spectroscopic technique. lmf is a third-generation fluoroquinolone antibiotic that exhibits striking potency against a broad spectrum of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria through inhibition of dna gyrase. lomefloxacin is a drug that is excreted in urine an...

The cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (cdk2) is a serine/threonine protein kinase that plays a key role in the cell cycle control system of all eukaryotic organisms. It has been a much studied drug target for potential anticancer therapy. Most cdk2 inhibitors in clinical development target almost exclusively the catalytic ATP-binding pocket of cdk2. However, several five amino-acid peptide inhibitors t...