At the catalytic site for the hydrolysis of cellulose the enzyme cellobiohydrolase Cel7A binds the enantiomers of the adrenergic beta-blocker propranolol with different selectivity. Methyl-to-hydroxymethyl group modificationso f propranolol, which result in higher affinity andi mproveds electivity, were herein studied by 1 H, 1 Ha nd 1 H, 13 Cs calar spinspin coupling constants as well as utilizing the nuclearO verhauser effect( NOE) in conjunction with molecular dynamics simulations of the ligandsp er se, whichs howedt he presence of all-antiperiplanar conformations, except for the one containing av icinal oxygen-oxygen arrangementg overned by the gauche effect. For the ligand-protein complexes investigated by NMR spectroscopy using, inter alia, transferred NOESY and saturation-transfer difference( STD) NMR experiments the S-isomers were shown to bind with ah ighera ffin-ity and ac onformation similar to that preferred in solution, in contrastt ot he R-isomer.T he fact that the S-form of the propranolol enantiomer is pre-arrangedf or binding to the protein is also observed for ac rystals tructureo fd ihydroxy-(S)-propranolol and Cel7A presentedh erein.W hereas the binding of propranolol is entropyd riven, the complexation with the dihydroxya naloguei sa nticipated to be favored also by an enthalpic term, such as fori ts enantiomer, that is, dihydroxy-(R)-propranolol, because hydrogen-bond donation replacest he corresponding bondingf rom hydroxyl groups in glucosyl residues of the natural substrate. In addition to a favorable entropy component, albeit lesseri nm agnitude, this represents an effect of enthalpy-to-entropy compensation in ligand-protein interactions.