Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C Chothia.
An analysis of 15 protein structures indicates: First, the loss of accessible surface area by monomeric proteins on folding-proportional to hydrophobic energy-is a simple function of molecular weight; second, the proportion of polar groups forming intramolecular hydrogen bonds is constant; and third, protein interiors are closely packed, each residue occupying the same volume as it does in crystals of amino acids.
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The molecular configuration of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in crystals of the iodobenzoate has been determined by using x-ray diffraction techniques. The configuration shows strain and steric hindrance and the conformation is fixed. Some of the implications of this for the hallucinogenic activity of LSD are discussed.
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A correlation of the crystal structure analyses of the potent nicotinic agonists acetylcholine, acetyl-alpha-methylcholine, lactoylcholine, 1,1-dimethyl-4-phenylpiperazine, and nicotine allows one to determine the conformation of cholinergic agonists relevant to nicotinic nerve receptors.
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There are only a few possible conformations of D-lysergic acid diethylamide and hallucinogenic derivatives of tryptamine and phenylethylamine. Of these possible conformations there is a high structural correlation among the probable conformations of active hallucinogenic molecules and between these conformations and the known conformations of several central nervous system transmitter molecules.
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Protein structures are stabilized by hydrophobic and van der Waals forces, and by hydrogen bonds. The relation between these thermodynamic quantities and the actual three-dimensional structure of proteins can not be calculated precisely. However, certain empirical relations have been discovered. Hydrophobic energy is gained by the reduction of surface in contact with water. For monomeric proteins, the area of the surface accessible to solvent, and of that buried in the interior, is a simple function of molecular weight. Proteins with different shapes and secondary structures, but of the same molecular weight, have the same accessible surface area. It has been argued that there is no similar relationship for large oligomeric proteins. In this paper we show that the surface areas of oligomeric proteins, and the areas of the surface buried within them, are directly related to relative molecular mass. Although oligomers of the same molecular weight bury the same amounts of surface, the proportions buried within and between subunits vary. This has important implications for the role of subunit interfaces in the stability and activity of oligomeric proteins.
On the basis of comparative studies of known antibody structures and sequences it has been argued that there is a small repertoire of main-chain conformations for at least five of the six hypervariable regions of antibodies, and that the particular conformation adopted is determined by a few key conserved residues. These hypotheses are now supported by reasonably successful predictions of the structures of most hypervariable regions of various antibodies, as revealed by comparison with their subsequently determined structures.
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