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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Apr 17.
Published in final edited form as: Tetrahedron. 2010 Apr 17;66(16):2907–2918. doi: 10.1016/j.tet.2010.02.015

Figure 3. Close-up view of the heparin-binding site in antithrombin.

Figure 3

The structure of co-complex was obtained from PDB (filename ‘1e03’). Green ribbon shows antithrombin and magenta represents the heparin-binding site. Pentasaccharide DEFGH is shown in ball-and-stick representation. Extensive interactions between antithrombin arginine and lysines with multiple sulfate groups of DEFGH engineer the high affinity, high specificity interaction. Majority of the non-ionic binding energy involved in the heparin – antithrombin interaction is thought to arise from the hydrogen bond type interaction with sulfate groups. Figure modified from Desai UR. Med. Res. Rev. 2004; 24:151–181).