To fight infections, some scientists hope to design or find molecules that bind to the bacterial sensors, blocking out the signaling molecules.
In case of colloidal QDs, chemical self-assembly based on long organic molecules that bind to the functionalized surface of a metal nanoparticle is often used [10].
In such cases, drugs such as naloxone and naltrexone provide molecules that bind to opioid receptors with a higher affinity than the opioids themselves, but do not activate the receptors.
Bacterial riboswitches are elements present in the 5′-untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNA molecules that bind to ligands and regulate the expression of downstream genes.
A major component of the latter is mediated by antibody molecules that bind to pathogens, with exquisite specificity, and the immune complex formed activates cellular mechanisms leading to the removal and destruction of the complex.
This is unusual — most classical protease inhibitors function as simple "lock and key" molecules that bind to and block access to the protease active site (see, for example, bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor).
SELEX has been used widely, to study properties of RNA or DNA molecules that bind to proteins, small molecules, oligonucleotides and peptides among others [2].
NK cells were recently shown to limit lytic EBV infection through the down-regulation of MHC class I molecules that bind to inhibitory KIRs, and up-regulation of activating ligands such as ULBP-1 and CD112 [38].
Chemokines are structurally related, small-polypeptide signalling molecules that bind to and activate a family of G-protein-coupled receptors.
The objective of this study was to identify small molecules that bind to hAS3MT and affect enzymatic activity.
A system called "paracrine signaling" allows cells to communicate with each other by releasing signaling molecules that bind to and activate surrounding cells.
