Artificial intelligence insight on structural basis and small molecule binding niches of NMDA receptor

NMDA receptors are critical to neuronal activity and play essential roles in synaptic transmission, learning, and memory. Despite significant advances in X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), the structural diversity of NMDA receptors across species and the variations among receptor subtypes within the same species remain insufficiently explored. Additionally, several key small molecule binding sites, such as those for agonists, antagonists, and allosteric modulators, have not been fully characterized. In this study, we utilized state-of-the-art artificial intelligence algorithms to model NMDA receptors across multiple species and found that they all adopted a bouquet-like dimer-of-dimer structure. By comparing these models with cryo-EM resolved structures, we assessed the accuracy of the predictions and complemented the structural data with detailed models of transmembrane domain regions, which are traditionally challenging for experimental methods. Furthermore, through the integration of AI-based prediction tools and molecular dynamic simulations, we highlighted potential binding sites for agonists, competitive antagonists, and pore blockers at amino acid resolution. This AI-enhanced approach builds traditional structural biology techniques, revealing that NMDA receptors from different species adopt highly similar three-dimensional architectures, while also exhibiting subtype-specific structural features. Furthermore, our identification of ligand binding pockets at the amino acid resolution provides a more detailed understanding of receptor-ligand interactions, offering potential templates for rational drug design and optimization.