The transmembrane domains of GPCR dimers as targets for drug development

Apelin Receptor Homodimerisation Inhibits Hippocampal Neuronal Autophagy via G Protein-Dependent Signalling in Vascular Dementia

Vascular dementia (VD), a progressive vascular cognitive impairment, is characterised by the presence of cerebral hypoperfusion, increased blood-brain barrier permeability, and white matter lesions. Although current treatment strategies primarily focus on risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease, efficient and targeted therapies are lacking and the underlying mechanisms of VD remain unclear. We previously discovered that Apelin receptors (APJ), which are G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), can homodimerize and generate signals that are distinct from those of APJ monomers in VD rats. Apelin-13 reduces the level of APJ homodimers and leads to the proliferation of endogenous neural stem cells in the hippocampal dentate gyrus area, suggesting that it has a neuroprotective role. In this study, we established a rat and cellular oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation VD model to investigate the impact of APJ homodimerisation on autophagy. We found that APJ homodimers protect against VD by inhibiting autophagy through the Gαq and PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathways upon Gαi signalling, both in vivo and in vitro. This discovery provides a promising therapeutic target for chronic cerebral ischaemia-reperfusion diseases and an experimental foundation for the development of drugs that target APJ homodimers.

Development of Putative Bivalent Dicovalent Ligands for the Adenosine A1 Receptor

Accumulating evidence suggests that G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) can exist and function in homodimer and heterodimer forms. The adenosine A1 receptor (A1R) has been shown to form both homodimers and heterodimers, but there is a lack of chemical tools to study these dimeric receptor populations. This work describes the synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of a novel class of bivalent GPCR chemical tools, where each ligand moiety of the bivalent compound contains a sulfonyl fluoride covalent warhead designed to be capable of simultaneously reacting with each A1R of an A1R homodimer. The novel compounds were characterised using radioligand binding assays, including washout assays, and functionally in cAMP assays. The bivalent dicovalent compounds were competitive A1R antagonists and showed evidence of covalent binding and simultaneous binding across an A1R homodimer. Greater selectivity for A1R over the adenosine A3 receptor was observed for bivalent dicovalent over the equivalent monovalent compounds, indicating subtype selectivity can be achieved with dual occupation by a bivalent dicovalent ligand.

Research progress on the role of orphan receptor GPR139 in neuropsychiatric behaviours

The study of orphan G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) holds much promise for increasing our understanding of neuropsychiatric diseases and for the development of new therapeutic strategies for these diseases. GPR139 is an orphan GPCR expressed in the central nervous system, especially in areas of the brain that control movement, motivation, and reward, and those that regulate neuropsychiatric behaviour. This review provides information about the discovery, tissue expression, signal transduction pathways, and physiological functions of GPR139, as well as how GPR139 interacts with other GPCRs, which form heteromeric complexes that affect their pharmacology and function. We also discuss the utility and therapeutic potential of ligands that target GPR139, including the pharmacological properties of reported agonists and antagonists. Finally, we highlight the pathologic role of GPR139 in neuropsychiatric behaviour and its potential as a therapeutic target in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Neurokinin-2 receptor negatively modulates substance P responses by forming complex with Neurokinin-1 receptor

BACKGROUND

Tachykinins and their cognate receptors, neurokinin receptors (NKs) including NK1, NK2, and NK3 play vital roles in regulating various physiological processes including neurotransmission, nociception, inflammation, smooth muscle contractility, and stimulation of endocrine and exocrine gland secretion. Their abnormal expression has been reported to be associated with neurological disorders, inflammation, and cancer. Even though NKs are expressed in the same cells with their expression being inversely correlated in some conditions, there is no direct evidence to prove their interaction. Understanding the functional crosstalk between NKs in mediated downstream signaling and cellular responses may elucidate the roles of each receptor in pathophysiology.

RESULTS

In this study, we showed that NKs were co-expressed in some cells. However, different from NK3, which only forms homodimerization, we demonstrated a direct interaction between NK1 and NK2 at the protein level using co-immunoprecipitation and NanoBiT-based protein interaction analysis. Through heterodimerization, NK2 downregulated substance P-stimulated NK1 signals, such as intracellular Ca2+ mobilization and ERK phosphorylation, by enhancing β-arrestin recruitment, even at the ligand concentration that could not activate NK2 itself or in the presence of NK1 specific antagonist, aprepitant. In A549 cells with receptors deleted and reconstituted, NK2 exerted a negative effect on substance P/NK1-mediated cell migration.

CONCLUSION

Our study has provided the first direct evidence of an interaction between NK1 and NK2, which highlights the functional relevance of their heterodimerization in cellular responses. Our findings demonstrated that through dimerization, NK2 exerts negative effects on downstream signaling and cellular response mediated by NK1. Moreover, this study has significant implications for understanding the complexity of GPCR dimerization and its effect on downstream signaling and cellular responses. Given the important roles of tachykinins and NKs in pathophysiology, these insights may provide clues for developing NKs-targeting drugs.

Structural basis of dimerization of chemokine receptors CCR5 and CXCR4

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are prominent drug targets responsible for extracellular-to-intracellular signal transduction. GPCRs can form functional dimers that have been poorly characterized so far. Here, we show the dimerization mechanism of the chemokine receptors CCR5 and CXCR4 by means of an advanced free-energy technique named coarse-grained metadynamics. Our results reproduce binding events between the GPCRs occurring in the minute timescale, revealing a symmetric and an asymmetric dimeric structure for each of the three investigated systems, CCR5/CCR5, CXCR4/CXCR4, and CCR5/CXCR4. The transmembrane helices TM4-TM5 and TM6-TM7 are the preferred binding interfaces for CCR5 and CXCR4, respectively. The identified dimeric states differ in the access to the binding sites of the ligand and G protein, indicating that dimerization may represent a fine allosteric mechanism to regulate receptor activity. Our study offers structural basis for the design of ligands able to modulate the formation of CCR5 and CXCR4 dimers and in turn their activity, with therapeutic potential against HIV, cancer, and immune-inflammatory diseases.

Dynamics of the Apo µ-Opioid Receptor in Complex with Gi Protein

Opioid receptors, particularly the µ-opioid receptor (μOR), play a pivotal role in mediating the analgesic and addictive effects of opioid drugs. G protein signaling is an important pathway of μOR function, usually associated with painkilling effects. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the interaction between the μOR and G protein remain poorly understood. In this study, we employed classical all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the structural changes occurring with the μOR-G protein complex under two different conditions: with the G protein in the apo form (open) and with the GDP bound G protein (closed, holo form). The receptor was in the apo form and active conformation in both cases, and the simulation time comprised 1µs for each system. In order to assess the effect of the G protein coupling on the receptor activation state, three parameters were monitored: the correlation of the distance between TM3 and TM6 and the RMSD of the NPxxYA motif; the universal activation index (A100); and the χ2 dihedral distribution of residue W2936.48. When complexed with the open G protein, receptor conformations with intermediate activation state prevailed throughout the molecular dynamics, whereas in the condition with the closed G protein, mostly inactive conformations of the receptor were observed. The major effect of the G protein in the receptor conformation comes from a steric hindrance involving an intracellular loop of the receptor and a β-sheet region of the G protein. This suggests that G-protein precoupling is essential for receptor activation, but this fact is not sufficient for complete receptor activation.

Neuroprotection afforded by targeting G protein-coupled receptors in heteromers and by heteromer-selective drugs

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the target of hundreds of approved drugs. Although these drugs were designed to target individual receptors, it is becoming increasingly apparent that GPCRs interact with each other to form heteromers. Approved drug targets are often part of a GPCR heteromer, and therefore new drugs can be developed with heteromers in mind. This review presents several strategies to selectively target GPCRs in heteromeric contexts, namely, taking advantage of i) heteromer-mediated biased agonism/signalling, ii) discovery of drugs with higher affinity for the receptor if it is part of a heteromer (heteromer selective drugs), iii) allosteric compounds directed against the interacting transmembrane domains and, eventually, iv) antagonists that block both GPCRs in a heteromer. Heteromers provide unique allosteric sites that should help designing a new type of drug that by definition would be a heteromer selective drug. The review also provides examples of rhodopsin-like class A receptors in heteromers that could be targeted to neuroprotect and/or delay the progression of diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. GPCRs in heteromers (GriH) with the potential to address dyskinesias, a common complication of dopaminergic replacement therapy in parkinsonian patients, are also described.

Structural analysis of human G-protein-coupled receptor 17 ligand binding sites

The human G protein coupled membrane receptor (GPR17), the sensor of brain damage, is identified as a biomarker for many neurological diseases. In human brain tissue, GPR17 exist in two isoforms, long and short. While cryo-electron microscopy technology has provided the structure of the long isoform of GPR17 with Gi complex, the structure of the short isoform and its activation mechanism remains unclear. Recently, we theoretically modeled the structure of the short isoform of GPR17 with Gi signaling protein and identified novel ligands. In the present work, we demonstrated the presence of two distinct ligand binding sites in the short isoform of GPR17. The molecular docking of GPR17 with endogenous (UDP) and synthetic ligands (T0510.3657, MDL29950) found the presence of two distinct binding pockets. Our observations revealed that endogenous ligand UDP can bind stronger in two different binding pockets as evidenced by glide and autodock vina scores, whereas the other two ligand's binding with GPR17 has less docking score. The analysis of receptor-UDP interactions shows complexes' stability in the lipid environment by 100 ns atomic molecular dynamics simulations. The amino acid residues VAL83, ARG87, and PHE111 constitute ligand binding site 1, whereas site 2 constitutes ASN67, ARG129, and LYS232. Root mean square fluctuation analysis showed the residues 83, 87, and 232 with higher fluctuations during molecular dynamics simulation in both binding pockets. Our findings imply that the residues of GPR17's two binding sites are crucial, and their interaction with UDP reveals the protein's hidden signaling and communication properties. Furthermore, this finding may assist in the development of targeted therapies for the treatment of neurological diseases.