Heterobivalent Ligands Crosslink Multiple Cell-Surface Receptors:The Human Melanocortin-4 and 6-Opioid Receptors

摘要

Cell-surface receptor mediated signaling is mechanistically complex.Hetero-and homo-multimerization of receptors appears to occur naturally and is a significant regulatory component of signal transduction.Additionally,exogenous entities,such as cells and viruses,can interact with multiple heterologous receptors and induce clustering.Such multivalent interactions are characterized by enhanced affinities(avidities)relative to monovalent binding and enhanced specificities with heteromultivalent interactions.