Molecular biological study neurotransmitter

Elucidation of the stmctural requirements for dmg interaction at the recognition site is by the study of stmcture—activity relationships (SAR), in which, according to a specific biologic response, the effects of systematic molecular modification of a parent dmg stmcture are determined. Such studies have permitted the classification of discrete classes of pharmacological receptors. For example, the neurotransmitter acetylcholine acts at both peripheral and central receptors which are of at least three distinct types. The effects of acetylcholine are mimicked in smooth and cardiac muscles and secretory... 

Colombian poison dart frogs are tiny, beautiful, and deadly. They produce a poison called histrionicotoxin, which is an amine that causes paralysis. Death from histrionicotoxin results by suffocation through paralysis of the victim s respiratory muscles. (A molecular model of histrionicotoxin is shown above.) Curare, the Amazonian arrow poison that is a mixture of compounds from a woody vine, contains another paralytic neurotoxin, called cf-tubocu-rarine. Histrionicotoxin and d-tubocurarine both block the action of acetylcholine, an important neurotransmitter. Amines like these and others have fascinating roles in biological systems, as we shall see in this chapter while studying the properties, reactivity, and synthesis of amines. 

---