Fixation of allosteric states of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor by chemical cross-linking

Receptor activity can be described in terms of ligand-induced transitions between functional states. The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), a prototypic ligand-gated ion channel, is an “unconventional allosteric protein” which exists in at least three interconvertible conformations, referred to as resting (low agonist affinity, closed channel), activated (open channel), and desensitized (high agonist affinity, closed channel). Here we show that 3,3′-dimethyl suberimidate (DMS) is an agonistic bifunctional cross-linking reagent, which irreversibly “freezes” the nAChR in a high agonist affinity/closed-channel state. The monofunctional homologue methyl acetoimidate, which is also a weak cholinergic agonist, has no such irreversible effect. Glutardialdehyde, a cross-linker that is not a cholinergic effector, fixes the receptor in a low-affinity state in the absence of carbamoylcholine, but, like DMS, in a high-affinity state in its presence. Covalent cross-linking thus allows us to arrest the nAChR in defined conformational states.