Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

Amino acid sensor conserved from bacteria to humans

2022; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 119; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1073/pnas.2110415119

ISSN

1091-6490

Autores

Vadim M. Gumerov, Ekaterina P. Andrianova, Miguel A. Matilla, Karen Page, Elizabet Monteagudo‐Cascales, Annette Dolphin, Tino Krell, Igor B. Zhulin,

Tópico(s)

Gut microbiota and health

Resumo

SignificanceAmino acids are the building blocks of life and important signaling molecules. Despite their common structure, no universal mechanism for amino acid recognition by cellular receptors is currently known. We discovered a simple motif, which binds amino acids in various receptor proteins from all major life-forms. In humans, this motif is found in subunits of calcium channels that are implicated in pain and neurodevelopmental disorders. Our findings suggest that γ-aminobutyric acid-derived drugs bind to the same motif in human proteins that binds natural ligands in bacterial receptors, thus enabling future improvement of important drugs.

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