Researchers have deciphered molecular structures of two neurotransmitter receptors bound with drug molecules.

Bryan Roth at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Medical School and Raymond Stevens at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and their colleagues, solved the crystal structure of a serotonin receptor called 5-HT2B bound to the migraine medication ergotamine, which is chemically related to the hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

In a related paper, a team led by Stevens and Eric Xu at the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan, solved the structure of another serotonin receptor, 5-HT1B, bound to ergotamine. Differences between the structures show how similar drugs can have different biological effects.

Such insight could help to design receptor-specific therapeutics and limit side effects, the authors say.

Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1232807 (2013); Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1232808 (2013)