Research Activities
Homology modeling of serotonin receptor
The homology modeling is useful approach to study potential functional aspects of proteins. The proteins chosen in one of our studies is the serotonin receptor. The homology modeling of serotonin receptor was carried out with b2-adrenergic receptor as template, which has close to 40% identity in the trans-membrane region. The aim was to check if cholesterol facilitates the binding of the receptor to its ligands. Two template structures of b2-adrenergic receptor were used, one which contained two molecules of cholesterol between trans-membrane helices and one that did not. Several ligands, including agonists and antagonists, were docked on both the model structures and the results suggest that cholesterol might indeed be facilitating binding of ligands to the receptor.
Researcher(s):
- Dr. Amitabha Chattopadhyay & Group