Nature Communications (Jul 2020)

Molecular mechanisms underlying menthol binding and activation of TRPM8 ion channel

  • Lizhen Xu,
  • Yalan Han,
  • Xiaoying Chen,
  • Aerziguli Aierken,
  • Han Wen,
  • Wenjun Zheng,
  • Hongkun Wang,
  • Xiancui Lu,
  • Zhenye Zhao,
  • Cheng Ma,
  • Ping Liang,
  • Wei Yang,
  • Shilong Yang,
  • Fan Yang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17582-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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Menthol in mints elicits a coolness sensation by selective activation of TRPM8 ion channel. Here authors dock menthol to TRPM8 and systematically validate their menthol binding models with thermodynamic mutant cycle analysis in functional tests, and shed light on TRPM8 activation by menthol at the atomic level.