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Emerging Concepts in Ion Channel Biophysics
Poster Abstracts
42
10-POS
Board 10
Investigating Dynamics of the NMDA Receptor Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Nils Berglund
, Birgit Schiøtt.
Aarhus University, Aarhus, Jutland, Denmark.
The NMDA receptor (NMDAR) is part of the ionotropic glutamate receptor family. Present in
the majority of excitatory synapses, these membrane spanning proteins form heterotetramers and
are activated through binding of both glycine and glutamate, to binding sites present in the
membrane adjacent ligand-binding domain. Neurotransmitter binding leads to conformational
changes that open the channel region of the protein allowing an influx of Ca
2+
in the postsynaptic
neuron, leading to depolarization and signal transduction. NMDAR is essential for brain function
and brain development, crucially in the areas of learning and memory formation. The
dysregulation of this receptor has been implicated in a large number of neurological conditions
and it is therefore a promising target in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy,
schizophrenia, depression as well as several other conditions.
The objective of our work was to improve the understanding of the dynamic nature of NMDAR
and the effect neurotransmitter binding had on protein dynamics. Thanks to recently released,
high resolution structures from X-ray crystalography and cryo-EM studies, this protein can now
be studied computationally at the atomistic level. Furthermore these structures have
demonstrated that NMDAR has a highly dynamic nature with a significant number of well
defined and distinct conformational states. Using molecular dynamics simulations we
investigated the effects of neurotransmitter binding on full heterotetrameric NMDAR structures
bound to a POPC membrane. Initial results show early stages of conformational transitions as a
result of ligand binding.