Computational study on the binding affinity between microtubules and consciousnessaltering substances

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.