Binding high affinity

The absorption of sulfonylureas from the upper gastrointestinal tract is faidy rapid and complete. The agents are transported in the blood as protein-bound complexes. As they are released from protein-binding sites, the free (unbound) form becomes available for diffusion into tissues and to sites of action. Specific receptors are present on pancreatic islet P-ceU surfaces which bind sulfonylureas with high affinity. Binding of sulfonylureas to these receptors appears to be coupled to an ATP-sensitive channel to stimulate insulin secretion. These agents may also potentiate insulin-stimulated glucose transport in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle. 

Fig. 2. Molecular modeling of dopamine D2 receptor agonists used to define the molecular conformation needed for selective high affinity binding.

The spatial and steric requirements for high affinity binding to protein kinase C (PKC), a macromolecule that has not yet been crystallized, were determined. Protein kinase C plays a critical role in cellular signal transduction and is in part responsible for cell differentiation. PKC was identified as the macromolecular target for the potent tumor-promoting phorbol esters (25). The natural agonists for PKC are diacylglycerols (DAG) (26). The arrows denote possible sites of interaction. 

While high-affinity binding due to ternary complex formation (ligand binding to the receptor followed by... 

FIGURE 4.18 Affinity of adenosine receptor agonists in whole cells (dark bars) and membranes (cross-hatched bars, high-affinity binding site). Data shown for (1) 2-phenylaminoadenosine, (2) 2-chloro adenosine, (3) 5 -N-ethylcarboxamidoadenosine, (4) N6-cyclohexyladenosine, (5) (-)-(R)-N6-phenylisopropyladenosine, and (6) N6-cyclopentyladenosine. Data redrawn from [15],... 

In cyclic nucleotide-regulated channels, this domain serves as a high-affinity binding site for 3-5 cyclic monophosphates. The CNBD of channels has a significant sequence similarity to the CNBD of most other classes of eukaryotic cyclic nucleotide receptors and to the CNBD of the prokaryotic catabolite activator protein (CAP). The primary sequence of CNBDs consists of approximately 120 amino acid residues forming three a-helices (oA-aC) and eight (3-strands ( 31- 38). 

Several drugs, the most well-known being local anesthetics and histrionicotoxin (HTX) (28), bind to an allosteric site on the AChR (relative to the agonist binding site). Biochemically, this site is identified by high affinity binding of [ H]Hj2 HTX (Table I). It may be located at the ion channel and coordinates between several of... 

Inhibition of EGF binding by palytoxin could be due to a decrease in receptor affinity, as in the case of TPA-type tumor promoters, and/or a decrease in receptor number. In Swiss 3T3 cells there are two classes of EGF receptors. The dissociation constants for the two EGF receptor classes were determined to be approximately 2 X 10 M and 2 x 10" M, corresponding to approximately 1 x 10 and 1 X 10 receptor molecules per cell, respectively (33). Scatchard analysis revealed that treatment of Swiss 3T3 cells with palytoxin, like PDBu, caused an apparent loss in high-affinity binding (Figure 2). However, in contrast to PDBu, palytoxin also caused a significant (approximately 50%) loss of low affinity EGF binding. 

Chemical modifications like alkylation with (A-ethylmaleimide (NEM) or oxidation with diamide that inhibit the phosphorylation activity of the enzyme did not seem to have any significant effect on the high affinity binding site when the enzyme was solubilized in the detergent decyl-PEG [69,41]. However, in the intact membrane these treatments reduced the affinity by a factor of 2-3. The reduction of the affinity was exclusively due to modification of the cysteine residue at position 384 in the B domain [69]. Apparently, the detergent effects the interaction between the B and C domains. 

The interpretation of much of the binding data given so far is based upon the assumption that the high affinity binding sites represent a population of independent sites. In the unphosphorylated II" " these sites would open up either to the periplas-mic or cytoplasmic side of the membrane independently of each other. The assumption ignores the evidence that the enzyme is, in fact, multimeric and that the data... 

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