Structure of nerve growth factor complexed with the shared neurotrophin receptor p75

The Garcia team at Stanford University put their DAWN^™ instrument to work in order to help confirm that NGF homodimers and other NT dimers bind to only one neurotrophin receptor p75 in solution. In order to ensure that the 2:1 NGF/p75 stoichiometry isn't an artifact of crystallization, they measured the ligand:receptor stoichiometry and the assembly thermodynamics of p75 complexes in solution with NGF, NT-3, and NT-4/5. MALS and SEC of p75 alone revealed it to be a mixture of a higher and lower molar mass species determined dimer and monomer of 55.1 and 27.0 kDa respectively.

He, X.-L.; Garcia, K. C. Science  2004, 304, 870-875. DOI: 10.3410/f.1018909.215495