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Regions of Interaction between Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor and α-Neurotoxins and Development of a Synthetic Vaccine Against Toxin Poisoning

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Methods in Protein Structure Analysis

Abstract

The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, (AChR) is a membrane protein on the postsynaptic neuromuscular junction. It has a principal role in postsynaptic neuromuscular transmission because it mediates ion flux across the membrane (1–2). The receptor is a pentamer composed of four subunits α2βγδ. Functional studies have focused mostly on the α-subunit because it is responsible for binding acetycholine (3–5) and α-neurotoxins (6). Snake venom postsynaptic neurotoxins form a large family of related proteins of which two subgroups, the long and short neurotoxins, are major constituents. Both long and short neurotoxins are known to bind specifically to the α-chain of AChR in a competitive manner with cholinergic ligands (7–8), but display differences in their association and dissociation kinetics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, 77030, USA

    M. Zouhair Atassi & Behzod Z. Dolimbek

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  1. M. Zouhair Atassi
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  2. Behzod Z. Dolimbek
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA

    M. Zouhair Atassi

  2. National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Ettore Appella

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Atassi, M.Z., Dolimbek, B.Z. (1995). Regions of Interaction between Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor and α-Neurotoxins and Development of a Synthetic Vaccine Against Toxin Poisoning. In: Atassi, M.Z., Appella, E. (eds) Methods in Protein Structure Analysis. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1031-8_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1031-8_27

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-1033-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-1031-8

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