Browsing by Author "Ayan, Meral"

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Citation Count: 3
The Neural Gamma(2)alpha(1)beta(2)alpha(1)beta(2) Gamma Amino Butyric Acid Ion Channel Receptor: Structural Analysis of the Effects of the Ivermectin Molecule and Disulfide Bridges
(Springer, 2018) Ayan, Meral; Eşsiz, Şebnem
While similar to 30% of the human genome encodes membrane proteins only a handful of structures of membrane proteins have been resolved to high resolution. Here we studied the structure of a member of the Cys-loop ligand gated ion channel protein superfamily of receptors human type A gamma(2)alpha(1)beta(2)alpha(1)beta(2) gamma amino butyric acid receptor complex in a lipid bilayer environment. Studying the correlation between the structure and function of the gamma amino butyric acid receptor may enhance our understanding of the molecular basis of ion channel dysfunctions linked with epilepsy ataxia migraine schizophrenia and other neurodegenerative diseases. The structure of human gamma(2)alpha(1)beta(2)alpha(1)beta(2) has been modeled based on the X-ray structure of the Caenorhabditis elegans glutamate-gated chloride channel via homology modeling. The template provided the first inhibitory channel structure for the Cys-loop superfamily of ligand-gated ion channels. The only available template structure before this glutamate-gated chloride channel was a cation selective channel which had very low sequence identity with gamma aminobutyric acid receptor. Here our aim was to study the effect of structural corrections originating from modeling on a more reliable template structure. The homology model was analyzed for structural properties via a 100 ns molecular dynamics (MD) study. Due to the structural shifts and the removal of an open channel potentiator molecule ivermectin from the template structure helical packing changes were observed in the transmembrane segment. Namely removal of ivermectin molecule caused a closure around the Leu 9 position along the ion channel. In terms of the structural shifts there are three potential disulfide bridges between the M1 and M3 helices of the gamma(2) and 2 alpha(1) subunits in the model. The effect of these disulfide bridges was investigated via monitoring the differences in root mean square fluctuations (RMSF) of individual amino acids and principal component analysis of the MD trajectory of the two homology models-one with the disulfide bridge and one with protonated Cys residues. In all subunit types RMSF of the transmembrane domain helices are reduced in the presence of disulfide bridges. Additionally loop A loop F and loop C fluctuations were affected in the extracellular domain. In cross-correlation analysis of the trajectory the two model structures displayed different coupling in between the M2-M3 linker region protruding from the membrane and the beta 1-beta 2/D loop and cys-loop regions in the extracellular domain. Correlations of the C loop which collapses directly over the bound ligand molecule were also affected by differences in the packing of transmembrane helices. Finally more localized correlations were observed in the transmembrane helices when disulfide bridges were present in the model. The differences observed in this study suggest that dynamic coupling at the interface of extracellular and ion channel domains differs from the coupling introduced by disulfide bridges in the transmembrane region. We hope that this hypothesis will be tested experimentally in the near future.
Structural Study of Gaba Type a Receptor : the Effect of Intrasubunit Disulphide Bridges on Dynamics
(Kadir Has Üniversitesi, 2014) Ayan, Meral; Gökhan Eşsiz, Şebnem
In the mammalian brain the gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor is the most commonly expressed subtype of receptor family. Although there is a rich pharmacological activity of R, specific molecular features are still not well known. In this study, we developed a new homology model based on a recently available X-Ray structure of the glutamate-gated chloride channel. When it is compared with previous homology models of the based on lower sequence identity templates, there are three additional disulphide bridges occurring in between membrane spanning alpha helices namely two in the alpha and one in the gamma subunits. These new disulphide bridges are occurring due to the differences in the sequence alignments of template and target structures. Additionally, we performed molecular dynamics simulations with two models, one with the disulphide bridges in the transmembrane domanin, and the other without disulphide bridges. To analyze simulation results, minimum pore radius along the pore, root-mean-square deviation of proteins and root mean square fluctuation of alpha are analyzed. Finally principal component analysis of the 100 nanosecond long trajectory is calculated to compare the differences in the correlated motions of two models