New Details of Acetylcholine Emerge

A group of scientists at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the University of California-Los Angeles have described in greater detail than ever before the molecular structure of acetylcholine receptors. These receptors, embedded in the surface of muscle fibers, are docking sites for acetylcholine, which carries signals from the nervous system to the muscles.

Abnormalities in or destruction of these receptors can cause congenital myasthenic syndromes or myasthenia gravis, respectively.

MDA grantee Zuo-Zhong Wang at USC and colleagues, whose findings were the cover story in the August issue of Nature Neuroscience, uncovered two previously unknown features of the acetylcholine receptor: a water-filled cavity inside it and a precisely ordered chain of sugar molecules on its surface.

Highly detailed knowledge of receptor structure is necessary for successful drug design, writes Titia Sixma of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam in an editorial that accompanies the findings. Sixma noted that the new revelations “suggest new avenues of exploration.”