SciLifeLab News Highlight: Stimulant-like Compounds and Receptor Activity

Last year, SciLifeLab wrote about research from our group at KTH and Stockholm University on how stimulant-like compounds modulate ligand-gated ion channels. The highlight covered two complementary studies that I contributed to as a postdoctoral researcher, published in the British Journal of Pharmacology and Science Advances.

The work centers on a conserved vestibular site in pentameric ligand-gated ion channels. Using a bacterial model receptor (sTeLIC) that I helped characterize, together with mammalian serotonin-3 receptors, we showed how amphetamines and related small molecules can allosterically fine-tune channel gating across evolutionarily distant systems.

I am the co-first author on the sTeLIC study, which provides a structural and functional framework for understanding how these compounds alter receptor activity. The findings connect basic biophysics to questions about neurological and gastrointestinal conditions, and it was rewarding to see the research communicated to a broader audience through SciLifeLab.