Protein composition of the atrial muscarinic acetylcholine receptor partially purified by wheat germ agglutinin affinity chromatography

Designing human m1 muscarinic receptor-targeted hydrophobic eigenmode matched peptides as functional modulators

A new proprietary de novo peptide design technique generated ten 15-residue peptides targeting and containing the leading nontransmembrane hydrophobic autocorrelation wavelengths, "modes", of the human m(1) muscarinic cholinergic receptor, m(1)AChR. These modes were also shared by the m(4)AChR subtype (but not the m(2), m(3), or m(5) subtypes) and the three-finger snake toxins that pseudoirreversibly bind m(1)AChR. The linear decomposition of the hydrophobically transformed m(1)AChR amino acid sequence yielded ordered eigenvectors of orthogonal hydrophobic variational patterns. The weighted sum of two eigenvectors formed the peptide design template. Amino acids were iteratively assigned to template positions randomly, within hydrophobic groups. One peptide demonstrated significant functional indirect agonist activity, and five produced significant positive allosteric modulation of atropine-reversible, direct-agonist-induced cellular activation in stably m(1)AChR-transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells, reflected in integrated extracellular acidification responses. The peptide positive allosteric ligands produced left-shifts and peptide concentration-response augmentation in integrated extracellular acidification response asymptotic sigmoidal functions and concentration-response behavior in Hill number indices of positive cooperativity. Peptide mode specificity was suggested by negative crossover experiments with human m(2)ACh and D(2) dopamine receptors. Morlet wavelet transformation of the leading eigenvector-derived, m(1)AChR eigenfunctions locates seven hydrophobic transmembrane segments and suggests possible extracellular loop locations for the peptide-receptor mode-matched, modulatory hydrophobic aggregation sites.

Allosteric modulation of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors

Five subtypes of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors have been identified in mammalian tissues, but the selectivity of ligands that are active at these receptors is low. It is possible, however, that selective compounds may be developed by targeting their allosteric site(s). Important new insights into the mechanism of allosteric control of muscarinic receptors have been obtained recently in investigations of the allosteric effects of neuromuscular blockers, and competition between ligands for the allosteric binding site has now been demonstrated. It is now apparent that the binding site for most allosteric ligands is close to the binding site for acetylcholine but that it is located at a more extracellular position. Stanislav Tucek and Jan Proska discuss the pharmacological implications of ligand interaction at these two sites and the therapeutic possibilities.

Muscarinic receptor-detergent complexes with different biochemical properties: selective solubilization, lectin affinity chromatography and ligand binding studies

Muscarinic receptors were solubilized by nonionic, zwitterionic and ionic detergents from porcine striatum. A mixture of digitonin and gitonin (3:2) was found to be most suitable in respect to receptor yield and stability. The solubilization of muscarinic receptors by this detergent appears to be dependent on the existence of free detergent micelles. Consequently, the receptor solubilization was studied at different protein-to-detergent ratios. Based on these experiments, a double extraction procedure was developed in which the receptor is solubilized subsequent to the solubilization of other membrane proteins. After elimination of the detergent excess, the binding of the receptor-detergent complex to six immobilized lectins was studied. In accordance with previous reports, we found a considerable portion of the digitonin/gitonin solubilized receptors (one step extraction procedure) specifically bound to wheat germ agglutinin via sialic acid residues. Muscarinic receptors solubilized by a double extraction procedure (either from porcine striatum or rat brain) did not bind to the lectin. This is not owing to selective extraction or partial denaturation, and indicates that considerable portions of the glycan residues are not covalently bound to the receptor polypeptide. A GTP-insensitive heterogenous agonist binding was found only at the non-wheat germ agglutinin binding receptors. The data analysis was performed by the affinity spectra method.

Separation of muscarinic acetylcholine receptor entities from rat cerebral cortex by ion exchange chromatography

Digitonin solubilized muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) of rat cerebral cortex membranes were chromatographed on the FPLC anion exchanger Mono Q. [3H]QNB (quinuclidinyl benzilate) and [3H]PZ (pirenzepine) binding activity was retarded from a NaCl free elution buffer and thereby separated from a part of the accompanying proteins. Elution of the column with a continuously increasing NaCl concentration desorbed the radioligand binding activities forming several peaks, two of which were nearly completely separated. Our data show that the mAChR in rat cerebral cortex consists of several entities with different electrical charges.

Glycoprotein properties of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors from bovine cerebral cortex

Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors from bovine cerebral cortex were solubilized in digitonin for the subsequent determination of several biochemical properties. The digitonin-solubilized receptors were representative of the entire membrane-bound population of muscarinic receptors with respect to carbohydrate content, isoelectric point, and molecular weight. The glycoprotein nature of the solubilized receptors was demonstrated by their quantitative binding to wheat germ agglutinin-agarose. The presence of a bound antagonist did not decrease the extent of receptor binding to this lectin. Treatment of receptors with neuraminidase to remove N-acetylneuraminic acid residues reduced binding to wheat germ agglutinin-agarose by 40%; further treatment with endoglycosidases D and H, to remove all N-linked carbohydrate, decreased binding by a total of 67%. Removal of N-acetylneuraminic acid residues had no effect on agonist binding properties of the membrane-bound receptors. The carbohydrate-specific enzymes were further used to assess the contribution of carbohydrate to the isoelectric point and molecular weight of the receptor. Muscarinic receptors solubilized in either digitonin or Triton X-100 focused as one major species with a pI of 4.3. Neuraminidase treatment resulted in an increase of 0.17 units in the pI of the receptor. Muscarinic receptors labeled with the covalent muscarinic antagonist propylbenzilylcholine mustard migrated as a single major polypeptide with a molecular weight of 73,000 on sodium dodecyl sulfate-urea-polyacrylamide gels. The exclusion of urea from these gels severely retarded receptor mobility, indicating a strong tendency for aggregation of receptors in SDS. Removal of N-linked carbohydrate by endoglycosidase treatment reduced the molecular weight of the antagonist binding polypeptide by no more than 5%. These results demonstrate the glycoprotein nature of muscarinic receptors from mammalian cerebral cortex and provide evidence for their heterogeneity with respect to carbohydrate content.

Degradation of rat brain cholinergic muscarinic receptors in vitro: enhancement by agonists and inhibition by antagonists

Cholinergic muscarinic receptors undergo proteolytic degradation in vitro under physiological conditions as shown by a loss in [3H]quinuclidinylbenzilate binding activity. The serine protease inhibitor phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride was very effective in diminishing the receptor loss. Soybean trypsin inhibitor was less effective. Both EDTA and EGTA were also effective in abolishing receptor degradation, suggesting the involvement of metallopeptidases in the process. Calcium-dependent neutral proteases requiring sulfhydryl reducing agents did not seem to be involved in receptor degradation. Dithiothreitol failed to enhance receptor degradation and iodoacetamide, leupeptin, and antipain, inhibitors of this enzyme class, failed to alter receptor loss as measured by radioligand binding. Most of the proteolytic activity occurred in the cytosol and was readily resolved from the receptor in the membrane fraction. We found that [3H]quinuclidinylbenzilate, an antagonist, inhibited the rate of receptor loss. On the other hand, agonists (acetylcholine, methacholine, and muscarine) appeared to enhance the rate of receptor loss. We postulate that these opposite effects are due to differences in receptor conformation in response to ligand binding. Susceptibility to proteolysis may therefore serve as a probe for receptor conformation.

Purification of the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor from porcine atria

The muscarinic acetylcholine receptor from porcine atria has been purified 100,000-fold to homogeneity by solubilization in digitonin/cholate and sequential chromatography on wheat germ agglutinin-agarose, diethylaminoethylagarose, hydroxylapatite, and 3-(2'-aminobenzhydryloxy)tropane-agarose. The yield of purified receptor was 4.3% of that found in the membrane fraction, and the purified receptor bound 11.1-12.8 nmol of L-[3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate per mg of protein, corresponding to a binding component Mr of 78,400-90,000. The purified receptor preparation consisted of two polypeptides in approximately equimolar amounts when examined on silver-stained sodium dodecyl sulfate/polyacrylamide gels. The larger polypeptide (Mr 78,000 on 8% polyacrylamide gels) was specifically alkylated with [3H]propylbenzilylcholine mustard, whereas the smaller polypeptide (Mr 14,800) was not labeled. The possibility that the small polypeptide is a contaminant fortuitously appearing in equimolar amounts with the large polypeptide cannot be ruled out at this time. The purified preparation was highly stable, with no measurable change in the number of ligand binding sites or the gel pattern after 1 month's storage on ice. Scatchard analysis showed a single class of binding sites for the antagonist L-[3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate with a dissociation constant of 61 +/- 4 pM. Equilibrium titration experiments demonstrated that the antagonist L-hyoscyamine displaced L-[3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate from a single class of sites (Kd = 475 +/- 30 pM), whereas the agonist carbamoylcholine interacted at two populations of sites (53% +/- 3% high affinity, Kd = 1.1 +/- 0.3 microM; 47% +/- 3% low affinity, Kd = 67 +/- 14 microM). The ligand binding data were very similar to that for the membrane-bound receptor, suggesting that the receptor has not been altered radically during purification.