Probing the Structural Dynamics of the NMDA Receptor Activation by Coarse-Grained Modeling

N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are glutamate-gated excitatory channels that play essential roles in brain functions. High-resolution structures have been solved for an allosterically inhibited and agonist-bound form of a functional NMDA receptor; however, other key functional states (particularly the active open-channel state) were only resolved at moderate resolutions by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). To decrypt the mechanism of the NMDA receptor activation, structural modeling is essential to provide presently missing information about structural dynamics.

http://ift.tt/2tJyV7m