Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Olfactory Receptor Antagonism In The Or-I7 Aldehyde Receptor And The Mammalian Olfactory System, Min Ting Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The detection of smell is initiated when an odorant binds and activates olfactory receptors (ORs) within the nose. Chapter 1 studies the structural requirements for activation of the OR-I7 aldehyde receptor. Octanal is an agonist of the OR-I7 receptor. 4-Ethylcyclohexylacetaldehyde (1.1), with a cyclohexyl ring that locks the C4-C5 bond of octanal in the gauche conformation, was previously found to have higher potency than octanal, suggesting that the OR-I7 receptor prefers the gauche conformation of octanal during activation. However, 1.1 had only been previously tested as a mixture of cis- and trans-isomers, and therefore, it was …