There's not actually chemical covalent bonds that are formed but it's a non-covalent interaction, usually dominated by hydrogen bonding.

所以配体和受体之间不生成共价键,这是一种非共价化合反应,它们通常以氢键相联

耶鲁公开课 - 生物医学工程探索课程节选

Now, usually this is a non-covalent interaction.

这通常是一种非共价化合反应

耶鲁公开课 - 生物医学工程探索课程节选

We're going to talk about this kind of non-covalent interaction more when we talk about the immune system, because one example of ligand and receptors that's important in the immune system are antigens - foreign molecules, and antibodies - molecules that we produce.

当我们讲到免疫系统的时候,会更详细地谈到这种非共价化合反应,因为在免疫系统中,一个重要的配体受体结合反应,就是抗原,即外源分子,与抗体,这个人体自身产生的分子结合

耶鲁公开课 - 生物医学工程探索课程节选