Molecular modeling of the weak glycine antagonist iso-THAO

When compared to strychnine, a potent glycine antagonist, iso-THAO, a bicyclic 5-isoxazolol zwitterion, has been reported to be a weak glycine antagonist. Since there are so few glycine antagonists, and there is a striking lack of similarity between the structures of these two antagonists, iso-THAO was studied using current molecular modeling techniques and quantum mechanical calculations in order to compare the structural features and charge distributions of iso-THAO with glycine. The results of this study confirm our earlier hypothesis that an antagonist to inhibitory neurotransmitters like glycine and GABA has at least three binding sites to the natural receptor that are very similar to three such binding sites in the transmitter and its agonists, and each antagonist has an additional negative binding site. We speculate that the latter negative binding site can attach to the top of the chloride channel within the receptor complex. The diminished inhibitory activity of iso-THAO is attributed to its poor structural congruence with the three atom attachment sites used by glycine at its natural recognition site.