Immunity: structure of an immunoglobulin (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, December 10, 2018, 18:40 (2176 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

Finally revealed by research. A calcium atom is placed:

https://phys.org/news/2018-12-image-atomic-important-immune.html

"A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital provides a biophysical and structural assessment of a critical immune regulating protein called human T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain containing protein-3 (hTIM-3). Understanding the atomic structure of hTIM-3 provides new insights for targeting this protein for numerous cancer and autoimmune therapeutics currently under clinical development.

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"'The hTIM-3 protein is an important immune regulator, yet it has been difficult to target for drug development as high-resolution structure conformational details have been elusive," said senior author Richard Blumberg, MD, chief of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy in the Department of Medicine at the Brigham. "We resolved the structure of hTIM-3 and established a novel biochemical assay to define its functionality, which will be useful for understanding the role of hTIM-3 in the immune system."

"The team captured a high-resolution X-ray crystal structure and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) image of the hTIM-3 IgV domain that is involved in functional interactions with CEACAM1, which is a crucial immune escape mechanism for many cancers. Importantly, the team determined the precise location of a calcium atom, an essential co-factor, bound to the hTIM-3 IgV domain.

"This is the first NMR analysis of any immune-related TIM molecule and the first high resolution structural report of the hTIM-3 IgV domain with association of critical co-factors such as calcium," said author Amit Gandhi, Ph.D., a researcher in Blumberg's laboratory in the Department of Medicine. "No one has been able to do this before. Hopefully this will help with the targeting of human hTIM-3 and the development of useful therapeutics.'"

Comment: The point as usual is how did evolution as s process find this highly specific shape with an exact position of a calcium atom to produced an exact function?