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Related Concept Videos

Prochirality02:05

Prochirality

The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...
Chirality in Nature02:30

Chirality in Nature

Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid. The...
¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons00:58

¹H NMR Chemical Shift Equivalence: Enantiotopic and Diastereotopic Protons

Replacing each alpha-hydrogen in chloroethane by bromine (or a different functional group) yields a pair of enantiomers. Such protons are called prochiral or enantiotopic and are related by a mirror plane. Enantiotopic protons are chemically equivalent in an achiral environment. Because most proton NMR spectra are recorded using achiral solvents, enantiotopic hydrogens yield a single signal.
In chiral compounds such as 2-butanol, replacing the methylene hydrogens at C3 produces a pair of...
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur02:30

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
Structure of Amines01:19

Structure of Amines

The hybridized nitrogen atom in amines possesses a lone pair of electrons and is bound to three substituents with a bond angle of around 108°, which is less than the tetrahedral angle of 109.5°. However, the C–N–H bond angle is slightly larger at 112°, with a carbon–nitrogen bond length of 147 pm. This carbon–nitrogen bond length of of amines is longer than the carbon–oxygen bond of alcohols (143 pm) but shorter than alkanes’ carbon–carbon bond (154 pm). These aspects are illustrated in Figure...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Achieving Efficient Fragment Screening at XChem Facility at Diamond Light Source
08:35

Achieving Efficient Fragment Screening at XChem Facility at Diamond Light Source

Published on: May 29, 2021

Insight in nAChR subtype selectivity from AChBP crystal structures.

Prakash Rucktooa1, August B Smit, Titia K Sixma

  • 1Division of Biochemistry and Center for Biomedical Genetics, Netherlands Cancer Institute, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Biochemical Pharmacology
|July 7, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are key drug targets for brain diseases. Structural studies of acetylcholine binding protein (AChBP) offer insights into nAChR subtype selectivity for drug design.

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Last Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Achieving Efficient Fragment Screening at XChem Facility at Diamond Light Source
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Neutron Crystallography Data Collection and Processing for Modelling Hydrogen Atoms in Protein Structures
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Analyzing Protein Architectures and Protein-Ligand Complexes by Integrative Structural Mass Spectrometry
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Analyzing Protein Architectures and Protein-Ligand Complexes by Integrative Structural Mass Spectrometry

Published on: October 15, 2018

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Structural Biology
  • Pharmacology

Background:

  • Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) exhibit diverse subtypes with complex expression and pharmacological profiles.
  • nAChRs are implicated in neurological disorders like Alzheimer's and schizophrenia, and are targets for smoking cessation and muscle relaxants.
  • Lack of high-resolution structural data for functional nAChRs hinders selective drug design.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To rationalize subtype specificity of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.
  • To leverage structural data for efficient drug design targeting nAChRs.

Main Methods:

  • High-resolution structural determination of acetylcholine binding protein (AChBP) over eight years.
  • Analysis of AChBP-ligand complexes to understand the neurotransmitter binding site.

Main Results:

  • Obtained high-resolution structures of AChBP, a homolog of the nAChR extracellular domain.
  • AChBP-ligand complexes provided detailed insights into the nAChR ligand-binding site.
  • Structural studies facilitate understanding of nAChR subtype specificity.

Conclusions:

  • Structural studies of AChBP-ligand complexes are crucial for understanding nAChR function.
  • This approach aids in the rational design of subtype-selective drugs targeting nAChRs.
  • Advances in structural biology are essential for developing novel therapeutics for neurological conditions.