Its safe to say that endocrinology and its related processes are amongst the most complex in the science world. Understanding it is difficult enough but capturing images of ligand based interactions is incredibly rare.
Scientists studying the ligand Neurotensin, which is involved with Parkinson's and schizophrenia, have recently been able to capture the receptor and its protein interacting and binding. This is huge for the community because it begins to bring to light the intricate processes involved at the site of the receptors.
"When the scientists looked at the structure of the new crystals, they discovered how binding of neurotensin to the receptor caused critical parts of the receptor located below a cell's surface to change shape. In particular, they saw that a region in the middle of the receptor dropped like a draw bridge to link the neurotensin binding site to parts of the receptor found inside cells that are important for G protein activation. The scientists concluded that this change may prepare the receptor for activating G proteins."
Now to the non biochemistry nerds out there it may not be as exciting, but take it for what its worth. These scientists were able to isolate some of the smallest and most intricate processes in the human body and capture it for the first time. We have been studying human physiology for a long, long time. Whenever a first like this is found it is a big deal.
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