Towards structure determination of neurotoxin II bound to nicotinic acetylcholine receptor: a solid-state NMR approach

FEBS Lett. 2004 Apr 30;564(3):319-24. doi: 10.1016/S0014-5793(04)00252-2.

Abstract

Solid-state magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has sufficient resolving power for full assignment of resonances and structure determination of immobilised biological samples as was recently shown for a small microcrystalline protein. In this work, we show that highly resolved spectra may be obtained from a system composed of a receptor-toxin complex. The NMR sample used for our studies consists of a membrane preparation of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor from the electric organ of Torpedo californica which was incubated with uniformly 13C-,15N-labelled neurotoxin II. Despite the large size of the ligand-receptor complex ( > 290 kDa) and the high lipid content of the sample, we were able to detect and identify residues from the ligand. The comparison with solution NMR data of the free toxin indicates that its overall structure is very similar when bound to the receptor, but significant changes were observed for one isoleucine.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bungarotoxins / chemistry
  • Bungarotoxins / metabolism
  • Cobra Neurotoxin Proteins / chemistry*
  • Cobra Neurotoxin Proteins / metabolism
  • Lipid Bilayers / chemistry
  • Macromolecular Substances
  • Models, Molecular
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Structure, Secondary*
  • Radioligand Assay
  • Receptors, Nicotinic / chemistry*
  • Receptors, Nicotinic / metabolism
  • Torpedo

Substances

  • Bungarotoxins
  • Cobra Neurotoxin Proteins
  • Lipid Bilayers
  • Macromolecular Substances
  • Receptors, Nicotinic
  • neurotoxin II, Naja naja oxiana