RUB researchers decode the interplay between enkephalins and
pain receptors
Metal complex arrests elusive messenger
“Pain begone!” In order to send out this signal, the human
body produces tiny messenger molecules that dock to certain receptors. Using
traditional biochemical methods, this interaction between the messengers,
so-called enkephalins, and opioid receptors is very difficult to study. An
interdisciplinary team of biochemists and inorganic chemists at the
Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) has now succeeded in identifying the structure of
an enkephalin in solution and to track its interaction with the opioid receptor
in detail. The analysis provides a new, precise starting point for the
development of drugs meant to combat specific types of pain. This discovery is
featured in the cover story of the “Dalton Transactions” journal.