Computational study on the binding affinity between microtubules and consciousnessaltering substances
Articolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2015
Citazione:
Computational study on the binding affinity between microtubules and consciousnessaltering substances / R. Pizzi, T. Rutigliano, A. Ferrarotti, M. Pregnolato. - In: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY AND BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING. - ISSN 1998-4510. - 9:(2015), pp. 75-82.
Abstract:
Microtubules (MTs, protein polymers of tubulin) are
very important in a number of cellular processes: they are part of
cell cytoskeleton and are involved in cell division and
intracellular transport. Their quantum properties inside neurons
are also supposed to be involved in the consciousness process. A
number of drugs are able to bind to tubulin and MTs and modify
their activation states. To investigate the hypothesis of a possible
correlation between conscious states and these molecular
interactions we simulated the binding affinity between MTs and
three psychotropic ligands, namely heroin, cocaine and LSD.
After preparing ligands using Molecular Dynamics, we applied
docking procedures analyze the microtubule-neuropeptide
complex. The study highlights that the drugs bind differently with
respect to the control ligand, taxol. Moreover, the study shows that
psychoactive ligands bind differently in MTs with respect to
tubulin, confirming previous studies on the importance of the MTs
conformation.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Keywords:
binding; bioinformatics; cocaine; consciousness; docking; heroin; LSD; microtubules; Molecular Dynamics; tubulin
Elenco autori:
R. Pizzi, T. Rutigliano, A. Ferrarotti, M. Pregnolato
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