Isoforms affinities

The endothelin receptor subtypes show differences in their signal transduction, ligand binding and tissue distribution. The ETA receptor is isopeptide-selective and binds ET-1 and ET-2 with the same and ET-3 with 70-100-fold lower affinity. The ETB receptor binds all three isoforms with the same affinity. 

The insulin-binding domain of the INSR is located within a cystein-rich region of the a-subunits. Alternative splicing of exon 11 generates two isoforms of the a-subunit which differ in their C-terminus and in their tissue distribution (type A leukocytes type B liver type A and B skeletal muscle and fat). The isoforms differ in their affinity to insulin (A > B), but then-relevance for normal and impaired insulin action is not entirely clear [1,2]. 

While these functions can be a carried out by a single transporter isoform (e.g., the serotonin transporter, SERT) they may be split into separate processes carried out by distinct transporter subtypes, or in the case of acetylcholine, by a degrading enzyme. Termination of cholinergic neurotransmission is due to acetylcholinesterase which hydrolyses the ester bond to release choline and acetic acid. Reuptake of choline into the nerve cell is afforded by a high affinity transporter (CHT of the SLC5 gene family). 

VMAT1 is expressed in the adrenal medulla, by small intensely fluorescent cells in sympathetic ganglia, and by other nonneural cells that release monoamines. In contrast, VMAT2 is expressed by neuronal populations in the nervous system. The substrate specificity for the two isoforms is similar, but VMAT2 has a somewhat higher apparent affinity for all monoamines than VMAT1. In addition, only VMAT2 appears able to transport histamine, consistent with its expression by mast cells. 

Different cells express different connexin isoforms, which make for great variations in binding affinities between different hemi-connexons. Connexons do form between cells of different types but not all heterogeneous hemi-connexon combinations support the formation of connexons between different cells. This may be... 

Phosphofructokinase (PFK) is a key regulatory enzyme of glycolysis that catalyzes the conversion of fructose-6-phosphate to fructose-1,6-diphosphate. The active PFK enzyme is a homo- or heterotetrameric enzyme with a molecular weight of 340,000. Three types of subunits, muscle type (M), liver type (L), and fibroblast (F) or platelet (P) type, exist in human tissues. Human muscle and liver PFKs consist of homotetramers (M4 and L4), whereas red blood cell PFK consists of five tetramers (M4, M3L, M2L2, ML3, and L4). Each isoform is unique with respect to affinity for the substrate fructose-6-phosphate and ATP and modulation by effectors such as citrate, ATP, cAMP, and fructose-2,6-diphosphate. M-type PFK has greater affinity for fructose-6-phosphate than the other isozymes. AMP and fructose-2,6-diphosphate facilitate fructose-6-phosphate binding mainly of L-type PFK, whereas P-type PFK has intermediate properties. 

SADP or sulfo-SADP also have been used to study the phenylalanine-methionine-arginine-phenylalanine-amide-activated sodium channel (Coscoy et al., 1998), various apolipoprotein E isoforms (Mann et al., 1995), the high-affinity phenylalkylamine Ca2+ antagonist binding protein from guinea pig (Moebius et al., 1994), the interaction of non-histone proteins with nucleosome core particles (Reeves and Nissen, 1993), and the interactions among cytochromes P-450 in the endoplasmic reticulum (Alston et al., 1991). See Chapter 28 for methods of using photoreactive heterobifunctional crosslinkers to study protein interactions. 

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