Interferon-alpha/beta Receptor - Structure

Structure

The structure was obtained using NMR. Originally 35 conformers were calculated. This was narrowed to 22 with low energy being the criteria. It was the first helical cytokine receptor's structure to be determined in solution. The molecule has one polymer The structure reveals the nature of binding. A model of the IFNAR2 reveals a predominantly hydrophobic patch on the receptor that interacts with a matching hydrophobic surface on IFN-alpha. An adjacent motif of charged side chains then guides the proteins into a tight complex. The binding interface may account for crossreactivity and ligand specificity of the receptor. The source for experiments was human but was expressed in Escherichia coli.

Read more about this topic:  Interferon-alpha/beta Receptor

Famous quotes containing the word structure:

    Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.
    Paul Tillich (1886–1965)

    It is difficult even to choose the adjective
    For this blank cold, this sadness without cause.
    The great structure has become a minor house.
    No turban walks across the lessened floors.
    The greenhouse never so badly needed paint.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    Just as a new scientific discovery manifests something that was already latent in the order of nature, and at the same time is logically related to the total structure of the existing science, so the new poem manifests something that was already latent in the order of words.
    Northrop Frye (b. 1912)