@phdthesis{Stock2011,
  author    = {Stock, Patrick Maria},
  title     = {Binding site contribution in high resolution records of nicotinic receptor channel currents},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-71769},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2011},
  abstract  = {The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor of skeletal muscle is one of the best-investigated synaptic proteins and often serves as model for the entire family of pentameric ligand gated ion channels (pLGICs). Receptors of this superfamily share a common architecture. After binding the agonist the characteristic C-loop structure closes around the ligand-binding site and triggers a wave of conformational changes that spread through the protein and finally result in the opening of the channel gate. As shown before, high-resolution single channel data can hardly be described by simple kinetic mechanisms (Parzefall et al., 1998, Hallermann et al., 2005). Recent advances in the field of kinetic modelling on receptor currents demonstrate that the introduction of additional short lived shut states in kinetic schemes enhances the quality of estimates of reaction rates. The additional shut states that immediately follow ligand bound states in the mechanism are suggested to resemble the closing movement of the C-loop (Lape et al., 2008; Mukhtasimova et al., 2009). It has not been described yet whether and how the structural differences of the 2 binding sites of the receptor influence the opening behaviour. To address this question, high-resolution single channel recordings, in combination with agonists that are known to exhibit different binding site selectivity, were performed. Thereby, a detailed description of the binding site dependent generation of channel currents is possible. At the embryonic mouse-muscle receptor used in this study the ligand binding sites are located at the α-γ and α-δ subunit interfaces. By allocation of opening characteristics to the α-δ and α-γ sites it is possible to show the binding site dependent activation of distinct kinetic states. Furthermore, it will be shown that the recently introduced short-lived shut states are sufficient to describe high-resolution single channel data. Finally an enhanced kinetic mechanism based on the 'primed states' model, published in 2009 by Mukhtasimova et al., will be presented. In this model the structurally diverse α-δ and α-γ binding sites elicit different kinetic channel characteristics. Thus the complex high-resolution kinetic characteristics of the embryonic receptor can be described coherently.},
  subject      = {Nicotinischer Acetylcholinrezeptor},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Shatskaya2006,
  author    = {Shatskaya, Natalia},
  title     = {Identification of amino acids within the substrate binding region of organic cation transporters (OCTZs) that are involved in binding of corticosterone},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-20430},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2006},
  abstract  = {The polyspecific organic cation transporters (OCT) are involved in the elimination and distribution of drugs, environmental toxins, and endogenous organic cations including monoamine neurotransmitters. Steroid hormones inhibit organic cation transport by the three OCT subtypes with different affinities showing distinct species difference; for example, the IC50 values for corticosterone inhibition of cation uptake by transporters rOCT1 and rOCT2 are ~150\&\#956;M and ~4 \&\#956;M, respectively. By introducing domains and amino acids from rOCT2 into rOCT1, we identified three amino acids in the presumed 10th TMD of rOCT2 which are responsible for the higher affinity of corticosterone in comparison to rOCT1. This is the first study which revealed the components of the binding site for corticosterone in OCTs. The evidence is presented that these amino acids (alanine 443, leucine 447, and glutamine 448 in rOCT1 and isoleucine 443, tyrosine 447, and glutamate 448 in rOCT2) are probably located within the substrate binding region of OCTs since the affinity of transported cations was increased together with the affinity of corticosterone. In the double mutant rOCT1(L447Y/Q448E) the IC50 value for the inhibition of [3H]MPP (0.1 \&\#956;M) uptake by corticosterone (24 ± 4 \&\#956;M) was significantly higher compared to the IC50 value for inhibition of [14C]TEA (10 \&\#956;M) uptake (5.3 ± 1.7 \&\#956;M), indicating an allosteric interaction between transported substrate and corticosterone. The data suggest that more than one compound can bind simultaneously to the substrate binding region. These results confirm previous suggestion that binding of substrates and inhibitors to OCTs involves interaction with a comparatively large surface that may include multiple binding domains rather than with a structurally restricted single binding site.},
  subject      = {Kation},
  language  = {en}
}