Mechanistic Studies on the Stereoselectivity of the Serotonin 5-HT1A Receptor.

ABSTRACT: G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are involved in a wide range of physiological processes, and they have attracted considerable attention as important targets for developing new medicines. A central and largely unresolved question in drug discovery, which is especially relevant to GPCRs, concerns ligand selectivity: Why do certain molecules act as activators (agonists) whereas others, with nearly identical structures, act as blockers (antagonists) of GPCRs? To address this question, we employed all-atom, long-timescale molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how two diastereomers (epimers) of dihydrofuroaporphine bind to the serotonin 5-HT1A receptor and exert opposite effects. By using molecular interaction fingerprints, we discovered that the agonist could mobilize nearby amino a

SUBMITTER: Yuan S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4957245 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature