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The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor: Molecular architecture of a ligand-regulated ion channel

1987; Elsevier BV; Volume: 8; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0165-6147(87)90039-3

1873-3735

Jean‐Pierre Changeux, Jérôme Giraudat, Michael Dennis,

Receptor Mechanisms and Signaling

The nAChR is a membrane-bound allosteric protein which carries several categories of topologically distinct binding sites and mediates interactions between these sites by characteristic allosteric transitions. Significant progress has been achieved in defining the regions of the molecule which form the two major functional domains-the acetylcholine binding sites and the agonist-gated ion channel. Jean-Pierre Changeux and colleagues briefly review recent experimental results which provide new insights into the functional architecture of the nAChR which, in addition, appear to be shared by a whole family of neurotransmitter-gated ion channels.