Active regions’ setting of the extracellular ligandbinding domain of human interleukin-6 receptor

The reliable three dimensional (3-D) structure of the extracellular ligand-binding domain (V106-P322) of human interleukin-6 receptor (hIL-6R) has been constructed by means of computer-guided homology modeling techniques using the crystal structure of the extracellular ligand-binding region (K52–L251) of human growth hormone receptor (hGHR) as templet. The space location of some key residues which influence the combination ability between the receptor and the ligand has been observed and the effects of point mutagenesis of the four conservative cysteine residues on the space conformation are analyzed. The results show that the space conformation of the side-chain carboxyl of E305 plays a key role in the ligand-binding ability. Furthermore, the space conformation of the side-chain carboxyl of E305 is very important for the electrostatic potential complementarity between hIL-6R and hIL-6 according to the docking method.