Conformational Analysis of the Ca2+-Bound Opioid Peptides: Implications for Ligand-Receptor Interaction

Based on our earlier proposal on the role of Ca2+ in ligand-receptor recognition and the demonstration of the similarity of the Ca(2+)-bound forms of Met-enkephalin and morphine (Zhorov, B.S. and Ananthanarayanan, V.S., FEBS Lett. 354, 131-134 (1994)) we have undertaken the conformational analysis of a series of the Ca(2+)-bound opioid peptides aiming to find their conformations matching Ca(2+)-bound morphine. A Monte …