CHARACTERIZATION OF DIMETHYL SULFOXIDE BINDING SITES ON GLOBULAR TRIMERIC ADIPONECTIN

摘要

Secreted by the adipose tissue, adiponectin is anadipokine with unique anti-diabetic, anti-obesity and antiatherosclerosisproperties. Adiponectin has been proposedas a drug target for treating obesity-related diseases andmany existing drugs have been found to regulatecirculating adiponectin levels in humans. The initial goalof this study was to characterize the binding of potentialligands to adiponectin. However, the binding site ofdimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was incidentally discoveredby solution NMR. As the widely used solvent for manyligand binding assays, DMSO binding at the atomic levelhas never been reported. Our results indicate the necessityof characterizing the binding of DMSO prior to perfomingligand binding assays.