Cation-π interactions and their functional roles in membrane proteins.

Cation-π interactions arise as a result of strong attractive forces between positively charged entities and the π-electron cloud of aromatic groups. The physicochemical characteristics of cation-π interactions are particularly well-suited to the dual hydrophobic/hydrophilic environment of membrane proteins. As high-resolution structural data of membrane proteins bring molecular features into increasingly sharper view, cation-π interactions are gaining traction as essential contributors to membrane protein chemistry, function, and pharmacology. Here we review the physicochemical properties of cation-π interactions and present several prominent examples which demonstrate significant roles for this specialized biological chemistry.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Journal of Molecular Biology

• Publication date

  2021-05-03

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Chemistry

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.jmb.2021.167035PMID 33957146PMCID PMC8338773
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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