Glucocorticoid Receptor
After playing around in Jolecule, I decided to learn more about the different proteins they had available for viewing. The protein that peeked my interest was the Glucocorticoid Receptor. As presented in Jolecule, this protein is in its tertiary structure due to the folding of the protein.This protein is responsible for controlling stress response in the nucleus. The receptor binds to cortisol (cortisol is a steroid hormone that is produced by the adrenal gland) and then travels to the nucleus and binds to the DNA within the nucleus. This process of binding can trigger either two responses; the expression of anti-inflammatory proteins in the nucleus is up regulated or the expression of pro-inflammatory proteins in the cytosol is repressed. Inflammatory proteins are responsible for the healing of tissue when there is an injury present. These proteins can cause redness, heat, and pain at the site of the injury. If the inflammatory proteins persist for too long, the pain at the injury site can become chronic. Glucocorticoids stop this from happening. Because of this, glucocorticoids (as noted by NCBI) are widely used for the suppression of chronic inflammatory diseases such as asthma. Glucoorticoids receptors are also gaining interest within the field of Psychology as these receptors are also responsible for the response of stress in the brain. Psychologists believe that further understanding how the Glucocorticoid Receptor works will help in understanding how psychological diseases develop such as depression.
The Glucocorticoid Receptor is modular in structure. This means that within the receptor, there are different structural parts that have multiple functions. Like all steroid receptors, the Glucocorticoid Receptor has a variable domain, DNA binding domain, hinge region, and hormone binding domain. The variable domain is different for each steroid receptor. For GR, it has the N-terminus which directs the delivery of the protein to the correct organelle. The DNA binding domain controls which gene will be activated when it comes in contact with the DNA within the nucleus. The hinge region is responsible for the movement of the receptors to the nucleus and the hormone binding domain is responsible for the affect of the response of the receptor.
This shows the DNA Binding Domain. This is the only DNA Binding Domain in the Glucocorticoid Receptor
This is the Hinge Region.
This is the overall protein
This shows the DNA Binding Domain. This is the only DNA Binding Domain in the Glucocorticoid Receptor
This is the N Terminal
This is the overall protein
Are there four separate domains per each strand of the Glucocorticoid Receptor or is there a total of four domains within this receptor?
ReplyDeleteFor each glucocorticoid receptor there are 4 donations
DeleteSince there are multiple functions for the different structural parts of the receptor, does this explain why the receptor can stop inflammatory pain and be the response for stress in the brain?
ReplyDeleteI absolutely think so. The fact that it can be multifunctional is the reason why it can respond to different things within the body.
DeleteWhat exactly causes the receptor to bind to the cortisol?
ReplyDeleteWhen there are high cases of inflamed tissues/cells in the body.
DeleteHow does the Glucocorticoid Receptor actually cause stress within a person?
ReplyDeleteWhat specific level of protein structure does your protein have?
From articles that I have read, they do not expand as to why, but from what I can infer, if your cells in your brain are undergoing stress within their nucleus, this has ought to cause them not to work properly. In turn, this can cause an increase of stress within the person.
DeleteAnd your second question has been edited into the post
By stress, do you mean the emotional stress or do you mean stress as in overworking?
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good question. My question to you is how do you define stress? Stress can occur in a number of ways due overworking or emotional tramua.
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