1
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Kogut-Günthel MM, Zara Z, Nicoli A, Steuer A, Lopez-Balastegui M, Selent J, Karanth S, Koehler M, Ciancetta A, Abiko LA, Hagn F, Di Pizio A. The path to the G protein-coupled receptor structural landscape: Major milestones and future directions. Br J Pharmacol 2024. [PMID: 39209310 DOI: 10.1111/bph.17314] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2023] [Revised: 06/14/2024] [Accepted: 06/28/2024] [Indexed: 09/04/2024] Open
Abstract
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) play a crucial role in cell function by transducing signals from the extracellular environment to the inside of the cell. They mediate the effects of various stimuli, including hormones, neurotransmitters, ions, photons, food tastants and odorants, and are renowned drug targets. Advancements in structural biology techniques, including X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), have driven the elucidation of an increasing number of GPCR structures. These structures reveal novel features that shed light on receptor activation, dimerization and oligomerization, dichotomy between orthosteric and allosteric modulation, and the intricate interactions underlying signal transduction, providing insights into diverse ligand-binding modes and signalling pathways. However, a substantial portion of the GPCR repertoire and their activation states remain structurally unexplored. Future efforts should prioritize capturing the full structural diversity of GPCRs across multiple dimensions. To do so, the integration of structural biology with biophysical and computational techniques will be essential. We describe in this review the progress of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to examine GPCR plasticity and conformational dynamics, of atomic force microscopy (AFM) to explore the spatial-temporal dynamics and kinetic aspects of GPCRs, and the recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence for protein structure prediction to characterize the structures of the entire GPCRome. In summary, the journey through GPCR structural biology provided in this review illustrates how far we have come in decoding these essential proteins architecture and function. Looking ahead, integrating cutting-edge biophysics and computational tools offers a path to navigating the GPCR structural landscape, ultimately advancing GPCR-based applications.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Zeenat Zara
- Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
- Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
| | - Alessandro Nicoli
- Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
- Professorship for Chemoinformatics and Protein Modelling, Department of Molecular Life Science, School of Life Science, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
| | - Alexandra Steuer
- Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
- Professorship for Chemoinformatics and Protein Modelling, Department of Molecular Life Science, School of Life Science, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
| | - Marta Lopez-Balastegui
- Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB), Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute & Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jana Selent
- Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB), Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute & Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Sanjai Karanth
- Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
| | - Melanie Koehler
- Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
- TUM Junior Fellow at the Chair of Nutritional Systems Biology, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
| | - Antonella Ciancetta
- Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
| | - Layara Akemi Abiko
- Focal Area Structural Biology and Biophysics, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Franz Hagn
- Structural Membrane Biochemistry, Bavarian NMR Center, Dept. Bioscience, School of Natural Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
- Institute of Structural Biology (STB), Helmholtz Munich, Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Antonella Di Pizio
- Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
- Professorship for Chemoinformatics and Protein Modelling, Department of Molecular Life Science, School of Life Science, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany
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2
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Velloso JPL, de Sá AGC, Pires DEV, Ascher DB. Engineering G protein-coupled receptors for stabilization. Protein Sci 2024; 33:e5000. [PMID: 38747401 PMCID: PMC11094779 DOI: 10.1002/pro.5000] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2023] [Revised: 03/21/2024] [Accepted: 04/10/2024] [Indexed: 05/19/2024]
Abstract
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are one of the most important families of targets for drug discovery. One of the limiting steps in the study of GPCRs has been their stability, with significant and time-consuming protein engineering often used to stabilize GPCRs for structural characterization and drug screening. Unfortunately, computational methods developed using globular soluble proteins have translated poorly to the rational engineering of GPCRs. To fill this gap, we propose GPCR-tm, a novel and personalized structurally driven web-based machine learning tool to study the impacts of mutations on GPCR stability. We show that GPCR-tm performs as well as or better than alternative methods, and that it can accurately rank the stability changes of a wide range of mutations occurring in various types of class A GPCRs. GPCR-tm achieved Pearson's correlation coefficients of 0.74 and 0.46 on 10-fold cross-validation and blind test sets, respectively. We observed that the (structural) graph-based signatures were the most important set of features for predicting destabilizing mutations, which points out that these signatures properly describe the changes in the environment where the mutations occur. More specifically, GPCR-tm was able to accurately rank mutations based on their effect on protein stability, guiding their rational stabilization. GPCR-tm is available through a user-friendly web server at https://biosig.lab.uq.edu.au/gpcr_tm/.
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Affiliation(s)
- João Paulo L. Velloso
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The Australian Centre for EcogenomicsThe University of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
- Computational Biology and Clinical InformaticsBaker Heart and Diabetes InstituteMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
- Baker Department of Cardiometabolic HealthThe University of MelbourneParkvilleVictoriaAustralia
| | - Alex G. C. de Sá
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The Australian Centre for EcogenomicsThe University of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
- Computational Biology and Clinical InformaticsBaker Heart and Diabetes InstituteMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
- Baker Department of Cardiometabolic HealthThe University of MelbourneParkvilleVictoriaAustralia
| | - Douglas E. V. Pires
- School of Computing and Information SystemsThe University of MelbourneParkvilleVictoriaAustralia
| | - David B. Ascher
- School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The Australian Centre for EcogenomicsThe University of QueenslandBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
- Computational Biology and Clinical InformaticsBaker Heart and Diabetes InstituteMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
- Baker Department of Cardiometabolic HealthThe University of MelbourneParkvilleVictoriaAustralia
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3
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Watanabe A, Nakajima A, Shiroishi M. Recovery of the histamine H 3 receptor activity lost in yeast cells through error-prone PCR and in vivo selection. Sci Rep 2023; 13:16127. [PMID: 37752220 PMCID: PMC10522717 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-43389-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/22/2023] [Indexed: 09/28/2023] Open
Abstract
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest protein family in humans and are important drug targets. Yeast, especially Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is a useful host for modifying the function and stability of GPCRs through protein engineering, which is advantageous for mammalian cells. When GPCRs are expressed in yeast, their function is often impaired. In this study, we performed random mutagenesis using error-prone PCR and then an in vivo screening to obtain mutants that recovered the activity of the human histamine H3 receptor (H3R), which loses its signaling function when expressed in yeast. Four mutations with recovered activity were identified after screening. Three of the mutations were identified near the DRY and NPxxY motifs of H3R, which are important for activation and are commonly found in class A GPCRs. The mutants responded exclusively to the yeast YB1 strain harboring Gi-chimera proteins, showing retention of G protein specificity. Analysis of one of the mutants with recovered activity, C415R, revealed that it maintained its ligand-binding characteristics. The strategy used in this study may enable the recovery of the activity of other GPCRs that do not function in S. cerevisiae and may be useful in creating GPCRs mutants stabilized in their active conformations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ayami Watanabe
- Department of Biological Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 6-3-1 Niijuku, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo, 125-8585, Japan
| | - Ami Nakajima
- Department of Biological Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 6-3-1 Niijuku, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo, 125-8585, Japan
| | - Mitsunori Shiroishi
- Department of Biological Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, 6-3-1 Niijuku, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo, 125-8585, Japan.
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4
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Mattheisen JM, Limberakis C, Ruggeri RB, Dowling MS, Am Ende CW, Ceraudo E, Huber T, McClendon CL, Sakmar TP. Bioorthogonal Tethering Enhances Drug Fragment Affinity for G Protein-Coupled Receptors in Live Cells. J Am Chem Soc 2023; 145:11173-11184. [PMID: 37116188 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c00972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/30/2023]
Abstract
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) modulate diverse cellular signaling pathways and are important drug targets. Despite the availability of high-resolution structures, the discovery of allosteric modulators remains challenging due to the dynamic nature of GPCRs in native membranes. We developed a strategy to covalently tether drug fragments adjacent to allosteric sites in GPCRs to enhance their potency and enable fragment-based drug screening in cell-based systems. We employed genetic code expansion to site-specifically introduce noncanonical amino acids with reactive groups in C-C chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) near an allosteric binding site for the drug maraviroc. We then used molecular dynamics simulations to design heterobifunctional maraviroc analogues consisting of a drug fragment connected by a flexible linker to a reactive moiety capable of undergoing a bioorthogonal coupling reaction. We synthesized a library of these analogues and employed the bioorthogonal inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reaction to couple the analogues to the engineered CCR5 in live cells, which were then assayed using cell-based signaling assays. Tetherable low-affinity maraviroc fragments displayed an increase in potency for CCR5 engineered with reactive unnatural amino acids that were adjacent to the maraviroc binding site. The strategy we describe to tether novel drug fragments to GPCRs should prove useful to probe allosteric or cryptic binding site functionality in fragment-based GPCR-targeted drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordan M Mattheisen
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Signal Transduction, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10065, United States
- Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Chemical Biology, New York, New York 10065, United States
| | - Chris Limberakis
- Pfizer Worldwide Research, Development, and Medical, Groton, Connecticut 06340, United States
| | - Roger B Ruggeri
- Pfizer Worldwide Research, Development, and Medical, Groton, Connecticut 06340, United States
| | - Matthew S Dowling
- Pfizer Worldwide Research, Development, and Medical, Groton, Connecticut 06340, United States
| | - Christopher W Am Ende
- Pfizer Worldwide Research, Development, and Medical, Groton, Connecticut 06340, United States
| | - Emilie Ceraudo
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Signal Transduction, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10065, United States
| | - Thomas Huber
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Signal Transduction, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10065, United States
| | - Christopher L McClendon
- Pfizer Worldwide Research, Development, and Medical, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Thomas P Sakmar
- Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Signal Transduction, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10065, United States
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5
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Yao H, Cai H, Li D. Fluorescence-Detection Size-Exclusion Chromatography-Based Thermostability Assay for Membrane Proteins. Methods Mol Biol 2023; 2564:299-315. [PMID: 36107350 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2667-2_16] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) have lightened up almost every aspect of biological research including protein sciences. In the field of membrane protein structural biology, GFPs have been used widely to monitor membrane protein localization, expression level, the purification process and yield, and the stability inside the cells and in the test tube. Of particular interest is the fluorescence-detector size-exclusion chromatography-based thermostability assay (FSEC-TS). By simple heating and FSEC, the generally applicable method allows rapid assessment of the thermostability of GFP-fused membrane proteins without purification. Here we describe the experimental details and some typical results for the FSEC-TS method.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Dianfan Li
- CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
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6
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Fu Y, Bedő J, Papenfuss AT, Rubin AF. Integrating deep mutational scanning and low-throughput mutagenesis data to predict the impact of amino acid variants. Gigascience 2022; 12:giad073. [PMID: 37721410 PMCID: PMC10506130 DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giad073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2023] [Revised: 07/02/2023] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 09/19/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Evaluating the impact of amino acid variants has been a critical challenge for studying protein function and interpreting genomic data. High-throughput experimental methods like deep mutational scanning (DMS) can measure the effect of large numbers of variants in a target protein, but because DMS studies have not been performed on all proteins, researchers also model DMS data computationally to estimate variant impacts by predictors. RESULTS In this study, we extended a linear regression-based predictor to explore whether incorporating data from alanine scanning (AS), a widely used low-throughput mutagenesis method, would improve prediction results. To evaluate our model, we collected 146 AS datasets, mapping to 54 DMS datasets across 22 distinct proteins. CONCLUSIONS We show that improved model performance depends on the compatibility of the DMS and AS assays, and the scale of improvement is closely related to the correlation between DMS and AS results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yunfan Fu
- The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Bioinformatics Division, 1G Royal Pde, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
- The University of Melbourne, Department of Medical Biology, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
| | - Justin Bedő
- The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Bioinformatics Division, 1G Royal Pde, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
- The University of Melbourne, Department of Medical Biology, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
| | - Anthony T Papenfuss
- The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Bioinformatics Division, 1G Royal Pde, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
- The University of Melbourne, Department of Medical Biology, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
- Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
| | - Alan F Rubin
- The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Bioinformatics Division, 1G Royal Pde, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
- The University of Melbourne, Department of Medical Biology, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
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7
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Sugaya K, Yasuda S, Sato S, Sisi C, Yamamoto T, Umeno D, Matsuura T, Hayashi T, Ogasawara S, Kinoshita M, Murata T. A methodology for creating thermostabilized mutants of G‐protein coupled receptors by combining statistical thermodynamics and evolutionary molecular engineering. Protein Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/pro.4404] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kanna Sugaya
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science Chiba University Chiba Japan
| | - Satoshi Yasuda
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science Chiba University Chiba Japan
- Membrane Protein Research Center Chiba University Chiba Japan
- Molecular Chirality Research Center Chiba University Chiba Japan
| | - Shingo Sato
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science Chiba University Chiba Japan
| | - Chen Sisi
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science Chiba University Chiba Japan
- Membrane Protein Research Center Chiba University Chiba Japan
| | - Taisei Yamamoto
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science Chiba University Chiba Japan
| | - Daisuke Umeno
- Department of Applied Chemistry Waseda University Tokyo Japan
| | - Tomoaki Matsuura
- Earth‐Life Science Institute Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo Japan
| | - Tomohiko Hayashi
- Interdisciplinary Program of Biomedical Engineering, Assistive Technology, and Art and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Engineering Niigata University Niigata Japan
- Institute of Advanced Energy Kyoto University Kyoto Japan
| | - Satoshi Ogasawara
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science Chiba University Chiba Japan
- Membrane Protein Research Center Chiba University Chiba Japan
- Molecular Chirality Research Center Chiba University Chiba Japan
- Institute for Advanced Academic Research Chiba University Chiba Japan
| | - Masahiro Kinoshita
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science Chiba University Chiba Japan
- Membrane Protein Research Center Chiba University Chiba Japan
- Institute of Advanced Energy Kyoto University Kyoto Japan
- Center for the Promotion of Interdisciplinary Education and Research Kyoto University Kyoto‐shi Japan
| | - Takeshi Murata
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science Chiba University Chiba Japan
- Membrane Protein Research Center Chiba University Chiba Japan
- Molecular Chirality Research Center Chiba University Chiba Japan
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8
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Protein Fusion Strategies for Membrane Protein Stabilization and Crystal Structure Determination. CRYSTALS 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/cryst12081041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Crystal structures of membrane proteins are highly desired for their use in the mechanistic understanding of their functions and the designing of new drugs. However, obtaining the membrane protein structures is difficult. One way to overcome this challenge is with protein fusion methods, which have been successfully used to determine the structures of many membrane proteins, including receptors, enzymes and adhesion molecules. Existing fusion strategies can be categorized into the N or C terminal fusion, the insertion fusion and the termini restraining. The fusions facilitate protein expression, purification, crystallization and phase determination. Successful applications often require further optimization of protein fusion linkers and interactions, whose design can be facilitated by a shared helix strategy and by AlphaFold prediction in the future.
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9
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Yeast-based directed-evolution for high-throughput structural stabilization of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Sci Rep 2022; 12:8657. [PMID: 35606532 PMCID: PMC9126886 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-12731-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2022] [Accepted: 05/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
The immense potential of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) as targets for drug discovery is not fully realized due to the enormous difficulties associated with structure elucidation of these profoundly unstable membrane proteins. The existing methods of GPCR stability-engineering are cumbersome and low-throughput; in addition, the scope of GPCRs that could benefit from these techniques is limited. Here, we present a yeast-based screening platform for a single-step isolation of GRCR variants stable in the presence of short-chain detergents, a feature essential for their successful crystallization using vapor diffusion method. The yeast detergent-resistant cell wall presents a unique opportunity for compartmentalization, to physically link the receptor's phenotype to its encoding DNA, and thus enable discovery of stable GPCR variants with unprecedent efficiency. The scope of mutations identified by the method reveals a surprising amenability of the GPCR scaffold to stabilization, and suggests an intriguing possibility of amending the stability properties of GPCR by varying the structural status of the C-terminus.
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10
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Yasuda S, Akiyama T, Kojima K, Ueta T, Hayashi T, Ogasawara S, Nagatoishi S, Tsumoto K, Kunishima N, Sudo Y, Kinoshita M, Murata T. Development of an Outward Proton Pumping Rhodopsin with a New Record in Thermostability by Means of Amino Acid Mutations. J Phys Chem B 2022; 126:1004-1015. [PMID: 35089040 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c08684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
We have developed a methodology for identifying further thermostabilizing mutations for an intrinsically thermostable membrane protein. The methodology comprises the following steps: (1) identifying thermostabilizing single mutations (TSSMs) for residues in the transmembrane region using our physics-based method; (2) identifying TSSMs for residues in the extracellular and intracellular regions, which are in aqueous environment, using an empirical force field FoldX; and (3) combining the TSSMs identified in steps (1) and (2) to construct multiple mutations. The methodology is illustrated for thermophilic rhodopsin whose apparent midpoint temperature of thermal denaturation Tm is ∼91.8 °C. The TSSMs previously identified in step (1) were F90K, F90R, and Y91I with ΔTm ∼5.6, ∼5.5, and ∼2.9 °C, respectively, and those in step (2) were V79K, T114D, A115P, and A116E with ΔTm ∼2.7, ∼4.2, ∼2.6, and ∼2.3 °C, respectively (ΔTm denotes the increase in Tm). In this study, we construct triple and quadruple mutants, F90K+Y91I+T114D and F90K+Y91I+V79K+T114D. The values of ΔTm for these multiple mutants are ∼11.4 and ∼13.5 °C, respectively. Tm of the quadruple mutant (∼105.3 °C) establishes a new record in a class of outward proton pumping rhodopsins. It is higher than Tm of Rubrobacter xylanophilus rhodopsin (∼100.8 °C) that was the most thermostable in the class before this study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Satoshi Yasuda
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.,Membrane Protein Research and Molecular Chirality Research Centers, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
| | - Tomoki Akiyama
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
| | - Keiichi Kojima
- Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
| | - Tetsuya Ueta
- Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
| | - Tomohiko Hayashi
- Interdisciplinary Program of Biomedical Engineering, Assistive Technology, and Art and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Niigata University, 8050 Ikarashi 2-no-cho, Nishi-ku, Niigata 950-2181, Japan.,Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Satoshi Ogasawara
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.,Membrane Protein Research and Molecular Chirality Research Centers, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
| | - Satoru Nagatoishi
- The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan
| | - Kouhei Tsumoto
- The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan.,Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
| | - Naoki Kunishima
- RIKEN RSC-Rigaku Collaboration Center, RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5165, Japan
| | - Yuki Sudo
- Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
| | - Masahiro Kinoshita
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.,Membrane Protein Research and Molecular Chirality Research Centers, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.,Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Takeshi Murata
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.,Membrane Protein Research and Molecular Chirality Research Centers, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
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11
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Royes J, Talbot P, Le Bon C, Moncoq K, Uzan M, Zito F, Miroux B. Membrane Protein Production in Escherichia coli: Protocols and Rules. Methods Mol Biol 2022; 2507:19-39. [PMID: 35773575 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2368-8_2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Despite recent progresses in the use of eukaryotic expression system, production of membrane proteins for structural studies still relies on microbial expression systems. In this review, we provide protocols to achieve high level expression of membrane proteins in Escherichia coli, especially using the T7 RNA polymerase based expression system. From the design of the construct, the choice of the appropriate vector-host combination, the assessment of the bacterial fitness, to the selection of bacterial mutant adapted to the production of the target membrane protein, the chapter covers all necessary methods for a rapid optimization of a specific target membrane protein. In addition, we provide a protocol for membrane protein solubilization based on our recent analysis of the Protein Data Bank.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordi Royes
- Laboratoire de Colloïdes et Matériaux Divisés École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris 10, Paris, France
| | - Pauline Talbot
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biologie Physico-Chimique des Protéines Membranaires, Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Paris, France
| | - Christel Le Bon
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biologie Physico-Chimique des Protéines Membranaires, Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Paris, France
| | - Karine Moncoq
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biologie Physico-Chimique des Protéines Membranaires, Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Paris, France
| | - Marc Uzan
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biologie Physico-Chimique des Protéines Membranaires, Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Paris, France
| | - Francesca Zito
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biologie Physico-Chimique des Protéines Membranaires, Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Paris, France
| | - Bruno Miroux
- Université Paris Cité, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biologie Physico-Chimique des Protéines Membranaires, Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Paris, France.
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12
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Wiseman DN, Samra N, Román Lara MM, Penrice SC, Goddard AD. The Novel Application of Geometric Morphometrics with Principal Component Analysis to Existing G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR) Structures. Pharmaceuticals (Basel) 2021; 14:953. [PMID: 34681177 PMCID: PMC8541025 DOI: 10.3390/ph14100953] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2021] [Revised: 09/17/2021] [Accepted: 09/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily is a large group of membrane proteins which, because of their vast involvement in cell signalling pathways, are implicated in a plethora of disease states and are therefore considered to be key drug targets. Despite advances in techniques to study these receptors, current prophylaxis is often limited due to the challenging nature of their dynamic, complex structures. Greater knowledge and understanding of their intricate structural rearrangements will therefore undoubtedly aid structure-based drug design against GPCRs. Disciplines such as anthropology and palaeontology often use geometric morphometrics to measure variation between shapes and we have therefore applied this technique to analyse GPCR structures in a three-dimensional manner, using principal component analysis. Our aim was to create a novel system able to discriminate between GPCR structures and discover variation between them, correlated with a variety of receptor characteristics. This was conducted by assessing shape changes at the extra- and intracellular faces of the transmembrane helix bundle, analysing the XYZ coordinates of the amino acids at those positions. We have demonstrated that GPCR structures can be classified based on characteristics such as activation state, bound ligands and fusion proteins, with the most significant results focussed at the intracellular face. Conversely, our analyses provide evidence that thermostabilising mutations do not cause significant differences when compared to non-mutated GPCRs. We believe that this is the first time geometric morphometrics has been applied to membrane proteins on this scale, and believe it can be used as a future tool in sense-checking newly resolved structures and planning experimental design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel N. Wiseman
- School of Biosciences, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK; (D.N.W.); (N.S.); (M.M.R.L.)
| | - Nikita Samra
- School of Biosciences, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK; (D.N.W.); (N.S.); (M.M.R.L.)
| | - María Monserrat Román Lara
- School of Biosciences, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK; (D.N.W.); (N.S.); (M.M.R.L.)
| | - Samantha C. Penrice
- School of Technology, BPP University, BPP House, Aldine Place, 142-144 Uxbridge Road, London W12 8AA, UK;
| | - Alan D. Goddard
- School of Biosciences, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK; (D.N.W.); (N.S.); (M.M.R.L.)
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13
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Waltenspühl Y, Ehrenmann J, Klenk C, Plückthun A. Engineering of Challenging G Protein-Coupled Receptors for Structure Determination and Biophysical Studies. Molecules 2021; 26:molecules26051465. [PMID: 33800379 PMCID: PMC7962830 DOI: 10.3390/molecules26051465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2021] [Revised: 02/27/2021] [Accepted: 03/01/2021] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Membrane proteins such as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) exert fundamental biological functions and are involved in a multitude of physiological responses, making these receptors ideal drug targets. Drug discovery programs targeting GPCRs have been greatly facilitated by the emergence of high-resolution structures and the resulting opportunities to identify new chemical entities through structure-based drug design. To enable the determination of high-resolution structures of GPCRs, most receptors have to be engineered to overcome intrinsic hurdles such as their poor stability and low expression levels. In recent years, multiple engineering approaches have been developed to specifically address the technical difficulties of working with GPCRs, which are now beginning to make more challenging receptors accessible to detailed studies. Importantly, successfully engineered GPCRs are not only valuable in X-ray crystallography, but further enable biophysical studies with nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, surface plasmon resonance, native mass spectrometry, and fluorescence anisotropy measurements, all of which are important for the detailed mechanistic understanding, which is the prerequisite for successful drug design. Here, we summarize engineering strategies based on directed evolution to reduce workload and enable biophysical experiments of particularly challenging GPCRs.
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14
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Abiko LA, Rogowski M, Gautier A, Schertler G, Grzesiek S. Efficient production of a functional G protein-coupled receptor in E. coli for structural studies. JOURNAL OF BIOMOLECULAR NMR 2021; 75:25-38. [PMID: 33501610 PMCID: PMC7897205 DOI: 10.1007/s10858-020-00354-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2020] [Accepted: 12/08/2020] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are transmembrane signal transducers which regulate many key physiological process. Since their discovery, their analysis has been limited by difficulties in obtaining sufficient amounts of the receptors in high-quality, functional form from heterologous expression hosts. Albeit highly attractive because of its simplicity and the ease of isotope labeling for NMR studies, heterologous expression of functional GPCRs in E. coli has proven particularly challenging due to the absence of the more evolved protein expression and folding machinery of higher eukaryotic hosts. Here we first give an overview on the previous strategies for GPCR E. coli expression and then describe the development of an optimized robust protocol for the E. coli expression and purification of two mutants of the turkey β1-adrenergic receptor (β1AR) uniformly or selectively labeled in 15N or 2H,15N. These mutants had been previously optimized for thermal stability using insect cell expression and used successfully in crystallographic and NMR studies. The same sequences were then used for E. coli expression. Optimization of E. coli expression was achieved by a quantitative analysis of losses of receptor material at each step of the solubilization and purification procedure. Final yields are 0.2-0.3 mg receptor per liter culture. Whereas both expressed mutants are well folded and competent for orthosteric ligand binding, the less stable YY-β1AR mutant also comprises the two native tyrosines Y5.58 and Y7.53, which enable G protein binding. High-quality 1H-15N TROSY spectra were obtained for E. coli-expressed YY-β1AR in three different functional states (antagonist, agonist, and agonist + G protein-mimicking nanobody-bound), which are identical to spectra obtained of the same forms of the receptor expressed in insect cells. NdeI and AgeI restriction sites introduced into the expression plasmid allow for the easy replacement of the receptor gene by other GPCR genes of interest, and the provided quantitative workflow analysis may guide the respective adaptation of the purification protocol.
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Affiliation(s)
- Layara Akemi Abiko
- Focal Area Structural Biology and Biophysics, Biozentrum, University of Basel, 4056, Basel, Switzerland.
| | - Marco Rogowski
- Focal Area Structural Biology and Biophysics, Biozentrum, University of Basel, 4056, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Antoine Gautier
- Focal Area Structural Biology and Biophysics, Biozentrum, University of Basel, 4056, Basel, Switzerland
- Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232, Villigen, Switzerland
| | | | - Stephan Grzesiek
- Focal Area Structural Biology and Biophysics, Biozentrum, University of Basel, 4056, Basel, Switzerland.
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15
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Cai H, Yao H, Li T, Hutter CAJ, Li Y, Tang Y, Seeger MA, Li D. An improved fluorescent tag and its nanobodies for membrane protein expression, stability assay, and purification. Commun Biol 2020; 3:753. [PMID: 33303987 PMCID: PMC7729955 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-01478-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2020] [Accepted: 11/12/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) are widely used to monitor membrane protein expression, purification, and stability. An ideal reporter should be stable itself and provide high sensitivity and yield. Here, we demonstrate that a coral (Galaxea fascicularis) thermostable GFP (TGP) is by such reasons an improved tag compared to the conventional jellyfish GFPs. TGP faithfully reports membrane protein stability at temperatures near 90 °C (20-min heating). By contrast, the limit for the two popular GFPs is 64 °C and 74 °C. Replacing GFPs with TGP increases yield for all four test membrane proteins in four expression systems. To establish TGP as an affinity tag for membrane protein purification, several high-affinity synthetic nanobodies (sybodies), including a non-competing pair, are generated, and the crystal structure of one complex is solved. Given these advantages, we anticipate that TGP becomes a widely used tool for membrane protein structural studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongmin Cai
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Center for Protein Science Shanghai, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, 200031, Shanghai, China
| | - Hebang Yao
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Center for Protein Science Shanghai, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, 200031, Shanghai, China
| | - Tingting Li
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Center for Protein Science Shanghai, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, 200031, Shanghai, China
| | - Cedric A J Hutter
- Institute of Medical Microbiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Yanfang Li
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Center for Protein Science Shanghai, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, 200031, Shanghai, China
| | - Yannan Tang
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Center for Protein Science Shanghai, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, 200031, Shanghai, China
| | - Markus A Seeger
- Institute of Medical Microbiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Dianfan Li
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Center for Protein Science Shanghai, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yueyang Road, 200031, Shanghai, China.
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16
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Lavington S, Watts A. Detergent-free solubilisation & purification of a G protein coupled receptor using a polymethacrylate polymer. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-BIOMEMBRANES 2020; 1863:183441. [PMID: 32810489 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2020.183441] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2020] [Revised: 08/04/2020] [Accepted: 08/04/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) function as guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) at heterotrimeric G proteins, and conduct this role embedded in a lipid bilayer. Detergents are widely used to solubilise GPCRs for structural and biophysical analysis, but are poor mimics of the lipid bilayer and may be deleterious to protein function. Amphipathic polymers have emerged as promising alternatives to detergents, which maintain a lipid environment around a membrane protein during purification. Of these polymers, the polymethacrylate (PMA) polymers have potential advantages over the most popular styrene maleic acid (SMA) polymer, but to date have not been applied to purification of membrane proteins. Here we use a class A GPCR, neurotensin receptor 1 (NTSR1), to explore detergent-free purification using PMA. By using an NTSR1-eGFP fusion protein expressed in Sf9 cells, a range of solubilisation conditions were screened, demonstrating the importance of solubilisation temperature, pH, NaCl concentration and the relative amounts of polymer and membrane sample. PMA-solubilised NTSR1 displayed compatibility with standard purification protocols and millimolar divalent cation concentrations. Moreover, the receptor in PMA discs showed stimulation of both Gq and Gi1 heterotrimers to an extent that was greater than that for the detergent-solubilised receptor. PMA therefore represents a viable alternative to SMA for membrane protein purification and has a potentially broad utility in studying GPCRs and other membrane proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven Lavington
- Department of Biochemistry, Oxford University, South Parks Road, OX1 3QU, UK
| | - Anthony Watts
- Department of Biochemistry, Oxford University, South Parks Road, OX1 3QU, UK.
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17
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Murata T, Yasuda S, Hayashi T, Kinoshita M. Theoretical identification of thermostabilizing amino acid mutations for G-protein-coupled receptors. Biophys Rev 2020; 12:323-332. [PMID: 32270446 DOI: 10.1007/s12551-020-00678-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2020] [Accepted: 03/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Thermostabilization of a membrane proteins, especially G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), is often necessary for biochemical applications and pharmaceutical studies involving structure-based drug design. Here we review our theoretical, physics-based method for identifying thermostabilizing amino acid mutations. Its novel aspects are the following: The entropic effect originating from the translational displacement of hydrocarbon groups within the lipid bilayer is treated as a pivotal factor; a reliable measure of thermostability is introduced and a mutation which enlarges the measure to a significant extent is chosen; and all the possible mutations can be examined with moderate computational effort. It was shown that mutating the residue at a position of NBW = 3.39 (NBW is the Ballesteros-Weinstein number) to Arg or Lys leads to the stabilization of significantly many different GPCRs of class A in the inactive state. Up to now, we have been successful in stabilizing several GPCRs and newly solving three-dimensional structures for the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor 2 (M2R), prostaglandin E receptor 4 (EP4), and serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) using X-ray crystallography. The subjects to be pursued in future studies are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takeshi Murata
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba, 263-8522, Japan.,Molecular Chirality Research Center, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba, 263-8522, Japan
| | - Satoshi Yasuda
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba, 263-8522, Japan.,Molecular Chirality Research Center, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba, 263-8522, Japan.,Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan
| | - Tomohiko Hayashi
- Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan.,Present address: Interdisciplinary Program of Biomedical Engineering, Assistive Technology, and Art and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Niigata University, 8050 Ikarashi 2-no-cho, Nishi-ku, Niigata, 950-2181, Japan
| | - Masahiro Kinoshita
- Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan.
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18
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Yasuda S, Akiyama T, Nemoto S, Hayashi T, Ueta T, Kojima K, Tsukamoto T, Nagatoishi S, Tsumoto K, Sudo Y, Kinoshita M, Murata T. Methodology for Further Thermostabilization of an Intrinsically Thermostable Membrane Protein Using Amino Acid Mutations with Its Original Function Being Retained. J Chem Inf Model 2020; 60:1709-1716. [PMID: 32155058 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.0c00063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
We develop a new methodology best suited to the identification of thermostabilizing mutations for an intrinsically stable membrane protein. The recently discovered thermophilic rhodopsin, whose apparent midpoint temperature of thermal denaturation Tm is measured to be ∼91.8 °C, is chosen as a paradigmatic target. In the methodology, we first regard the residues whose side chains are missing in the crystal structure of the wild type (WT) as the "residues with disordered side chains," which make no significant contributions to the stability, unlike the other essential residues. We then undertake mutating each of the residues with disordered side chains to another residue except Ala and Pro, and the resultant mutant structure is constructed by modifying only the local structure around the mutated residue. This construction is based on the postulation that the structure formed by the other essential residues, which is nearly optimized in such a highly stable protein, should not be modified. The stability changes arising from the mutations are then evaluated using our physics-based free-energy function (FEF). We choose the mutations for which the FEF is much lower than for the WT and test them by experiments. We successfully find three mutants that are significantly more stable than the WT. A double mutant whose Tm reaches ∼100 °C is also discovered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Satoshi Yasuda
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.,Molecular Chirality Research Center, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.,Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Tomoki Akiyama
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
| | - Sayaka Nemoto
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
| | - Tomohiko Hayashi
- Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Tetsuya Ueta
- Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
| | - Keiichi Kojima
- Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
| | - Takashi Tsukamoto
- Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
| | - Satoru Nagatoishi
- The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan
| | - Kouhei Tsumoto
- The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan.,Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
| | - Yuki Sudo
- Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
| | - Masahiro Kinoshita
- Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Takeshi Murata
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.,Molecular Chirality Research Center, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
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19
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Yao H, Cai H, Li D. Thermostabilization of Membrane Proteins by Consensus Mutation: A Case Study for a Fungal Δ8-7 Sterol Isomerase. J Mol Biol 2020; 432:5162-5183. [PMID: 32105736 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2020.02.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2019] [Revised: 02/09/2020] [Accepted: 02/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Membrane proteins are generally challenging to work with because of their notorious instability. Protein engineering has been used increasingly to thermostabilize labile membrane proteins such as G-protein-coupled receptors for structural and functional studies in recent years. Two major strategies exist. Scanning mutagenesis systematically eliminates destabilizing residues, whereas the consensus approach assembles mutants with the most frequent residues among selected homologs, bridging sequence conservation with stability. Here, we applied the consensus concept to stabilize a fungal homolog of the human sterol Δ8-7 isomerase, a 26.4 kDa protein with five transmembrane helices. The isomerase is also called emopamil-binding protein (EBP), as it binds this anti-ischemic drug with high affinity. The wild-type had an apparent melting temperature (Tm) of 35.9 °C as measured by the fluorescence-detection size-exclusion chromatography-based thermostability assay. A total of 87 consensus mutations sourced from 22 homologs gained expression level and thermostability, increasing the apparent Tm to 69.9 °C at the cost of partial function loss. Assessing the stability and activity of several systematic chimeric constructs identified a construct with an apparent Tm of 79.8 °C and two regions for function rescue. Further back-mutations of the chimeric construct in the two target regions yielded the final construct with similar apparent activity to the wild-type and an elevated Tm of 88.8 °C, totaling an increase of 52.9 °C. The consensus approach is effective and efficient because it involves fewer constructs compared with scanning mutagenesis. Our results should encourage more use of the consensus strategy for membrane protein thermostabilization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hebang Yao
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, National Center for Protein Science Shanghai, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 333 Haike Road, Shanghai 201210, China
| | - Hongmin Cai
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, National Center for Protein Science Shanghai, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 333 Haike Road, Shanghai 201210, China
| | - Dianfan Li
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, National Center for Protein Science Shanghai, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 333 Haike Road, Shanghai 201210, China.
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20
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Muk S, Ghosh S, Achuthan S, Chen X, Yao X, Sandhu M, Griffor MC, Fennell KF, Che Y, Shanmugasundaram V, Qiu X, Tate CG, Vaidehi N. Machine Learning for Prioritization of Thermostabilizing Mutations for G-Protein Coupled Receptors. Biophys J 2019; 117:2228-2239. [PMID: 31703801 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2019.10.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2019] [Revised: 10/11/2019] [Accepted: 10/17/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Although the three-dimensional structures of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), the largest superfamily of drug targets, have enabled structure-based drug design, there are no structures available for 87% of GPCRs. This is due to the stiff challenge in purifying the inherently flexible GPCRs. Identifying thermostabilized mutant GPCRs via systematic alanine scanning mutations has been a successful strategy in stabilizing GPCRs, but it remains a daunting task for each GPCR. We developed a computational method that combines sequence-, structure-, and dynamics-based molecular properties of GPCRs that recapitulate GPCR stability, with four different machine learning methods to predict thermostable mutations ahead of experiments. This method has been trained on thermostability data for 1231 mutants, the largest publicly available data set. A blind prediction for thermostable mutations of the complement factor C5a receptor 1 retrieved 36% of the thermostable mutants in the top 50 prioritized mutants compared to 3% in the first 50 attempts using systematic alanine scanning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sanychen Muk
- Department of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California
| | - Soumadwip Ghosh
- Department of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California
| | - Srisairam Achuthan
- Department of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California
| | | | - XiaoJie Yao
- Discovery Sciences, Pfizer, Groton, Connecticut
| | - Manbir Sandhu
- Department of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California
| | | | | | - Ye Che
- Discovery Sciences, Pfizer, Groton, Connecticut
| | | | - Xiayang Qiu
- Discovery Sciences, Pfizer, Groton, Connecticut
| | | | - Nagarajan Vaidehi
- Department of Computational and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, Duarte, California.
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21
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Jana S, Ghosh S, Muk S, Levy B, Vaidehi N. Prediction of Conformation Specific Thermostabilizing Mutations for Class A G Protein-Coupled Receptors. J Chem Inf Model 2019; 59:3744-3754. [PMID: 31408606 PMCID: PMC6944194 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.9b00175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are highly flexible and prone to denaturation during protein extraction in detergents and purification. This poses a huge challenge to purify a conformationally homogeneous solution of GPCRs. Thermostabilizing mutations have been used widely to purify and obtain crystal structures of several GPCRs. However, identifying thermostabilizing mutations for GPCRs remains a tedious and expensive task as they are not transferable even among closely related GPCRs. Additionally, the mutations stabilizing one conformational state of a GPCR do not always stabilize other conformational state(s) of the same GPCR. Previously we developed a computational method, LiticonDesign, for rapid prediction of thermostabilizing mutations for a specific GPCR conformation. In this study, we have used LiticonDesign to predict thermostabilizing mutations for the agonist bound active-intermediate state of the human adenosine receptor (A2AR) using the structure of the inactive state of the same GPCR and vice versa. Our study shows that the thermostable mutation predictions using LiticonDesign, for an active-intermediate state of a GPCR (A2AR in our case), requires a homology model that is derived from an active/active-intermediate state GPCR structure as a template. Similarly, the homology models derived from inactive state GPCR conformations are better in predicting the thermostable mutations for the inactive state of A2AR. Overall, LiticonDesign method is not only efficient in predicting thermostabilizing mutations for a given GPCR sequence but also can recover conformation specific mutations for a state of interest, if a suitable starting structure of desired conformation is chosen.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suvamay Jana
- Department of Computation and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, 1500 E. Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010
| | - Soumadwip Ghosh
- Department of Computation and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, 1500 E. Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010
| | - Sanychen Muk
- Department of Computation and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, 1500 E. Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010
| | - Benjamin Levy
- Department of Computation and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, 1500 E. Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010
| | - Nagarajan Vaidehi
- Department of Computation and Quantitative Medicine, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, 1500 E. Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010
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22
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Stauch B, Johansson LC, McCorvy JD, Patel N, Han GW, Huang XP, Gati C, Batyuk A, Slocum ST, Ishchenko A, Brehm W, White TA, Michaelian N, Madsen C, Zhu L, Grant TD, Grandner JM, Shiriaeva A, Olsen RHJ, Tribo AR, Yous S, Stevens RC, Weierstall U, Katritch V, Roth BL, Liu W, Cherezov V. Structural basis of ligand recognition at the human MT 1 melatonin receptor. Nature 2019; 569:284-288. [PMID: 31019306 PMCID: PMC6696938 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1141-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 136] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2018] [Accepted: 03/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) is a neurohormone that maintains circadian rhythms1 by synchronization to environmental cues and is involved in diverse physiological processes2 such as the regulation of blood pressure and core body temperature, oncogenesis, and immune function3. Melatonin is formed in the pineal gland in a light-regulated manner4 by enzymatic conversion from 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT or serotonin), and modulates sleep and wakefulness5 by activating two high-affinity G-protein-coupled receptors, type 1A (MT1) and type 1B (MT2)3,6. Shift work, travel, and ubiquitous artificial lighting can disrupt natural circadian rhythms; as a result, sleep disorders affect a substantial population in modern society and pose a considerable economic burden7. Over-the-counter melatonin is widely used to alleviate jet lag and as a safer alternative to benzodiazepines and other sleeping aids8,9, and is one of the most popular supplements in the United States10. Here, we present high-resolution room-temperature X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) structures of MT1 in complex with four agonists: the insomnia drug ramelteon11, two melatonin analogues, and the mixed melatonin-serotonin antidepressant agomelatine12,13. The structure of MT2 is described in an accompanying paper14. Although the MT1 and 5-HT receptors have similar endogenous ligands, and agomelatine acts on both receptors, the receptors differ markedly in the structure and composition of their ligand pockets; in MT1, access to the ligand pocket is tightly sealed from solvent by extracellular loop 2, leaving only a narrow channel between transmembrane helices IV and V that connects it to the lipid bilayer. The binding site is extremely compact, and ligands interact with MT1 mainly by strong aromatic stacking with Phe179 and auxiliary hydrogen bonds with Asn162 and Gln181. Our structures provide an unexpected example of atypical ligand entry for a non-lipid receptor, lay the molecular foundation of ligand recognition by melatonin receptors, and will facilitate the design of future tool compounds and therapeutic agents, while their comparison to 5-HT receptors yields insights into the evolution and polypharmacology of G-protein-coupled receptors.
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MESH Headings
- Acetamides/chemistry
- Acetamides/metabolism
- Amino Acid Sequence
- Antidepressive Agents/chemistry
- Antidepressive Agents/metabolism
- Crystallization
- Electrons
- Humans
- Indenes/chemistry
- Indenes/metabolism
- Lasers
- Ligands
- Melatonin/analogs & derivatives
- Melatonin/chemistry
- Models, Molecular
- Molecular Docking Simulation
- Mutation
- Receptor, Melatonin, MT1/agonists
- Receptor, Melatonin, MT1/chemistry
- Receptor, Melatonin, MT1/genetics
- Receptor, Melatonin, MT1/metabolism
- Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2C/chemistry
- Structure-Activity Relationship
- Substrate Specificity
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Stauch
- Bridge Institute,USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Linda C Johansson
- Bridge Institute,USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - John D McCorvy
- Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA
| | - Nilkanth Patel
- Bridge Institute,USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Gye Won Han
- Bridge Institute,USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Xi-Ping Huang
- Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- National Institute of Mental Health Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Cornelius Gati
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Bioscience Division, Menlo Park, CA, USA
- Stanford University, Department of Structural Biology, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Alexander Batyuk
- Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA
| | - Samuel T Slocum
- Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Andrii Ishchenko
- Bridge Institute,USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Wolfgang Brehm
- Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Thomas A White
- Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Nairie Michaelian
- Bridge Institute,USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Caleb Madsen
- Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Lan Zhu
- School of Molecular Sciences and Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery, Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Thomas D Grant
- Hauptman-Woodward Institute, Department of Structural Biology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA
| | - Jessica M Grandner
- Bridge Institute,USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Anna Shiriaeva
- Bridge Institute,USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Reid H J Olsen
- Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Alexandra R Tribo
- Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Saïd Yous
- Univ Lille, Inserm, CHU Lille, UMR-S 1172 - JPArc - Centre de Recherche Jean-Pierre AUBERT Neurosciences et Cancer, Lille, France
| | - Raymond C Stevens
- Bridge Institute,USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Uwe Weierstall
- Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
- School of Molecular Sciences and Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery, Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Vsevolod Katritch
- Bridge Institute,USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Bryan L Roth
- Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
- National Institute of Mental Health Psychoactive Drug Screening Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
- Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
| | - Wei Liu
- School of Molecular Sciences and Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery, Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
| | - Vadim Cherezov
- Bridge Institute,USC Michelson Center for Convergent Biosciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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23
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Popov P, Kozlovskii I, Katritch V. Computational design for thermostabilization of GPCRs. Curr Opin Struct Biol 2019; 55:25-33. [PMID: 30909106 DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2019.02.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2018] [Accepted: 02/19/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
GPCR superfamily is the largest clinically relevant family of targets in human genome; however, low thermostability and high conformational plasticity of these integral membrane proteins make them notoriously hard to handle in biochemical, biophysical, and structural experiments. Here, we describe the recent advances in computational approaches to design stabilizing mutations for GPCR that take advantage of the structural and sequence conservation properties of the receptors, and employ machine learning on accumulated mutation data for the superfamily. The fast and effective computational tools can provide a viable alternative to existing experimental mutation screening and are poised for further improvements with expansion of thermostability datasets for training the machine learning models. The rapidly growing practical applications of computational stability design streamline GPCR structure determination and may contribute to more efficient drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petr Popov
- Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia; Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Russia
| | - Igor Kozlovskii
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Russia
| | - Vsevolod Katritch
- Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Russia; Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Bridge Institute, Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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24
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Nagarajan S, Alkayed NJ, Kaul S, Barnes AP. Effect of thermostable mutations on the neurotensin receptor 1 (NTSR1) activation state. J Biomol Struct Dyn 2019; 38:340-353. [DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2019.1573705] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Shanthi Nagarajan
- The Knight Cardiovascular Institute, Oregon Health Science University, Portland, OR, USA
- Medicinal Chemistry Core, Oregon Health Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Nabil J. Alkayed
- The Knight Cardiovascular Institute, Oregon Health Science University, Portland, OR, USA
- Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, Oregon Health Science University Portland, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Sanjiv Kaul
- The Knight Cardiovascular Institute, Oregon Health Science University, Portland, OR, USA
| | - Anthony P. Barnes
- The Knight Cardiovascular Institute, Oregon Health Science University, Portland, OR, USA
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25
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Rana MS, Wang X, Banerjee A. An Improved Strategy for Fluorescent Tagging of Membrane Proteins for Overexpression and Purification in Mammalian Cells. Biochemistry 2018; 57:6741-6751. [PMID: 30481009 PMCID: PMC7266526 DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.8b01070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
An essential prerequisite for in vitro biochemical or structural studies is a construct that is amenable to high level expression and purification and is biochemically "well-behaved". In the field of membrane protein research, the use of green fluorescent protein (GFP) to monitor and optimize the heterologous expression in different hosts has radically changed the ease of streamlining and multiplexing the testing of a large number of candidate constructs. This is achieved by genetically fusing the fluorescent proteins to the N- or C-terminus of the proteins of interest to act as reporters which can then be followed by methods such as microscopy, spectroscopy, or in-gel fluorescence. Nonetheless, a systematic study on the effect of GFP and its spectral variants on the expression and yields of recombinant membrane proteins is lacking. In this study, we genetically appended four common fluorescent protein tags, namely, mEGFP, mVenus, mCerulean, and mCherry, to the N- or C-terminus of different membrane proteins and assessed their expression in mammalian cells by fluorescence-detection size exclusion chromatography (FSEC) and protein purification. We find that, of the four fluorescent proteins, tagging with mVenus systematically results in higher expression levels that translates to higher yields in preparative purifications, thus making a case for switching to this yellow spectral variant as a better fusion tag.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mitra S. Rana
- Cell Biology and Neurobiology Branch, National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD-20892
| | - Xiyu Wang
- Cell Biology and Neurobiology Branch, National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD-20892
| | - Anirban Banerjee
- Cell Biology and Neurobiology Branch, National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD-20892
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26
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Popov P, Peng Y, Shen L, Stevens RC, Cherezov V, Liu ZJ, Katritch V. Computational design of thermostabilizing point mutations for G protein-coupled receptors. eLife 2018; 7:34729. [PMID: 29927385 PMCID: PMC6013254 DOI: 10.7554/elife.34729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2017] [Accepted: 05/05/2018] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Engineering of GPCR constructs with improved thermostability is a key for successful structural and biochemical studies of this transmembrane protein family, targeted by 40% of all therapeutic drugs. Here we introduce a comprehensive computational approach to effective prediction of stabilizing mutations in GPCRs, named CompoMug, which employs sequence-based analysis, structural information, and a derived machine learning predictor. Tested experimentally on the serotonin 5-HT2C receptor target, CompoMug predictions resulted in 10 new stabilizing mutations, with an apparent thermostability gain ~8.8°C for the best single mutation and ~13°C for a triple mutant. Binding of antagonists confers further stabilization for the triple mutant receptor, with total gains of ~21°C as compared to wild type apo 5-HT2C. The predicted mutations enabled crystallization and structure determination for the 5-HT2C receptor complexes in inactive and active-like states. While CompoMug already shows high 25% hit rate and utility in GPCR structural studies, further improvements are expected with accumulation of structural and mutation data. The trillions of cells in the human body rely on receptors that sit in their cell membranes to communicate with each other. Hundreds of different receptors belong to the G protein-coupled receptor superfamily (called GPCRs for short) and play vital roles in the all organs and bodily systems. Indeed, GPCRs are the targets for almost 40% of therapeutic drugs. As such, deciphering the shape and activity of GPCRs is key to understanding the normal workings of the human biology and could help scientists discover new treatments for various diseases, from depression to high blood pressure to cancer. These receptors, however, are notoriously flimsy and unstable, making them difficult to work with in the laboratory. Different approaches have been developed to make GPCRs more stable, usually by swapping one or a few of the amino acid building blocks in the protein for other amino acids. Currently, this requires a costly and slow trial-and-error approach in which each amino acid out of 300-400 in the protein is mutated and tested experimentally. To speed up and reduce the cost of the process, Popov et al. asked if a computer could predict which mutations in the protein would stabilize it, meaning that fewer proteins would actually need to be tested. Four computer algorithms based on four different principles were developed and verified. The first one compares the target GPCR to other closely related receptors, trying to detect variations that cause the instability. The second tries to build in specific stabilizing interactions, or “bridges”, between different parts of the receptor. The third algorithm searches the known structures of other GPCRs for useful mutations. Finally, the fourth one uses accumulated data on the stability of hundreds of mutations in different GPCRs to train a machine learning predictor to recognize stabilizing mutations. All four algorithms produced useful predictions in a real-life project. Indeed, when combined in one computational tool, named CompoMug, the algorithms made it possible to detect optimal mutations in a human GPCR called 5-HT2C. This made the protein much easier to work with in the laboratory, and ultimately helped to solve its three-dimensional structure (which was reported in a separate study, published earlier in 2018) The 5-HT2C receptor is involved in regulating, among other things, mood and appetite. Details of its structure might therefore help researchers to design new antidepressants and obesity treatments. Moreover, CompoMug is already helping structural biologists to solve the structures of other GPCRs, which will further facilitate many aspects of GPCR drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Petr Popov
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States.,Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Russia
| | - Yao Peng
- iHuman Institute, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China
| | - Ling Shen
- iHuman Institute, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.,School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China
| | - Raymond C Stevens
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States.,iHuman Institute, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.,Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States.,Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States
| | - Vadim Cherezov
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States.,Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Russia.,Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States.,Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States
| | - Zhi-Jie Liu
- iHuman Institute, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.,School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China.,Insititute of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China
| | - Vsevolod Katritch
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States.,Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudny, Russia.,Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States.,Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States
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27
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Kajiwara Y, Yasuda S, Hikiri S, Hayashi T, Ikeguchi M, Murata T, Kinoshita M. Physical Origin of Thermostabilization by a Quadruple Mutation for the Adenosine A2a Receptor in the Active State. J Phys Chem B 2018; 122:4418-4427. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.8b00443] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Yuta Kajiwara
- Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Satoshi Yasuda
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
- Molecular Chirality Research Center, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
- Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Simon Hikiri
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
- Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Tomohiko Hayashi
- Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Mitsunori Ikeguchi
- Graduate School of Medical Life Science, Yokohama City University, 1-7-29 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230-0045, Japan
- RIKEN Medical Sciences Innovation Hub Program, 1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230-0045, Japan
| | - Takeshi Murata
- Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
- Molecular Chirality Research Center, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
- JST, PRESTO, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
| | - Masahiro Kinoshita
- Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
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28
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Bumbak F, Keen AC, Gunn NJ, Gooley PR, Bathgate RAD, Scott DJ. Optimization and 13CH 3 methionine labeling of a signaling competent neurotensin receptor 1 variant for NMR studies. BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-BIOMEMBRANES 2018; 1860:1372-1383. [PMID: 29596791 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2018.03.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2017] [Revised: 02/19/2018] [Accepted: 03/21/2018] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
Abstract
Neurotensin is a 13-residue peptide that acts as a neuromodulator of classical neurotransmitters such as dopamine and glutamate in the mammalian central nervous system, mainly by activating the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), neurotensin receptor 1 (NTS1). Agonist binding to GPCRs shifts the conformational equilibrium of the transmembrane helices towards distinct, thermodynamically favorable conformations that favor effector protein interactions and promotes cell signaling. The introduction of site specific labels for NMR spectroscopy has proven useful for investigating this dynamic process, but the low expression levels and poor stability of GPCRs is a hindrance to solution NMR experiments. Several thermostabilized mutants of NTS1 have been engineered to circumvent this, with the crystal structures of four of these published. The conformational dynamics of NTS1 however, has not been thoroughly investigated with NMR. It is generally accepted that stabilized GPCRs exhibit attenuated signaling, thus we thoroughly characterized the signaling characteristics of several thermostabilized NTS1 variants to identify an optimal variant for protein NMR studies. A variant termed enNTS1 exhibited the best combination of signaling capability and stability upon solubilization with detergents. enNTS1 was subsequently labeled with 13CH3-methionine in E. coli and purified to homogeneity in the absence of bound ligands. Using solution NMR spectroscopy we observed several well dispersed 13CH3-methionine resonances, many of which exhibited chemical shift changes upon the addition of the high affinity agonist peptide, NT8-13. Thus, enNTS1 represents a novel tool for investigating ligand induced conformational changes in NTS1 to gain insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying neurotensin signaling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabian Bumbak
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
| | - Alastair C Keen
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia
| | - Natalie J Gunn
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia; IBM Research Australia, Southbank, Victoria 3053, Australia
| | - Paul R Gooley
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia; Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
| | - Ross A D Bathgate
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
| | - Daniel J Scott
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
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29
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Nasrallah C, Rottier K, Marcellin R, Compan V, Font J, Llebaria A, Pin JP, Banères JL, Lebon G. Direct coupling of detergent purified human mGlu 5 receptor to the heterotrimeric G proteins Gq and Gs. Sci Rep 2018. [PMID: 29535347 PMCID: PMC5849714 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-22729-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors are class C G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that modulate synaptic activity and plasticity throughout the mammalian brain. Signal transduction is initiated by glutamate binding to the venus flytrap domains (VFT), which initiates a conformational change that is transmitted to the conserved heptahelical domains (7TM) and results ultimately in the activation of intracellular G proteins. While both mGlu1 and mGlu5 activate Gαq G-proteins, they also increase intracellular cAMP concentration through an unknown mechanism. To study directly the G protein coupling properties of the human mGlu5 receptor homodimer, we purified the full-length receptor, which required careful optimisation of the expression, N-glycosylation and purification. We successfully purified functional mGlu5 that activated the heterotrimeric G protein Gq. The high-affinity agonist-PAM VU0424465 also activated the purified receptor in the absence of an orthosteric agonist. In addition, it was found that purified mGlu5 was capable of activating the G protein Gs either upon stimulation with VU0424465 or glutamate, although the later induced a much weaker response. Our findings provide important mechanistic insights into mGlu5 G protein-dependent activity and selectivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chady Nasrallah
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Université de Montpellier, F-34000, Montpellier, France
| | - Karine Rottier
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Université de Montpellier, F-34000, Montpellier, France
| | - Romain Marcellin
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Université de Montpellier, F-34000, Montpellier, France
| | - Vincent Compan
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Université de Montpellier, F-34000, Montpellier, France
| | - Joan Font
- MCS, Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Amadeu Llebaria
- MCS, Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jean-Philippe Pin
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Université de Montpellier, F-34000, Montpellier, France
| | - Jean-Louis Banères
- Institut des Biomolécules Max Mousseron (IBMM), CNRS, Univ. Montpellier, ENSCM, Montpellier, France
| | - Guillaume Lebon
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Université de Montpellier, F-34000, Montpellier, France.
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30
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White KL, Eddy MT, Gao ZG, Han GW, Lian T, Deary A, Patel N, Jacobson KA, Katritch V, Stevens RC. Structural Connection between Activation Microswitch and Allosteric Sodium Site in GPCR Signaling. Structure 2018; 26:259-269.e5. [PMID: 29395784 DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2017.12.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 109] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2017] [Revised: 11/21/2017] [Accepted: 12/27/2017] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Sodium ions are endogenous allosteric modulators of many G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Mutation of key residues in the sodium binding motif causes a striking effect on G-protein signaling. We report the crystal structures of agonist complexes for two variants in the first sodium coordination shell of the human A2A adenosine receptor, D522.50N and S913.39A. Both structures present an overall active-like conformation; however, the variants show key changes in the activation motif NPxxY. Changes in the hydrogen bonding network in this microswitch suggest a possible mechanism for modified G-protein signaling and enhanced thermal stability. These structures, signaling data, and thermal stability analysis with a panel of pharmacological ligands provide a basis for understanding the role of the sodium-coordinating residues on stability and G-protein signaling. Utilizing the D2.50N variant is a promising method for stabilizing class A GPCRs to accelerate structural efforts and drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kate L White
- Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center, University of Southern California, 1002 West Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Matthew T Eddy
- Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center, University of Southern California, 1002 West Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Zhan-Guo Gao
- Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Gye Won Han
- Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center, University of Southern California, 1002 West Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Tiffany Lian
- Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center, University of Southern California, 1002 West Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Alexander Deary
- Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center, University of Southern California, 1002 West Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Nilkanth Patel
- Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center, University of Southern California, 1002 West Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Kenneth A Jacobson
- Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Vsevolod Katritch
- Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center, University of Southern California, 1002 West Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Raymond C Stevens
- Departments of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Bridge Institute, USC Michelson Center, University of Southern California, 1002 West Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
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31
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Abstract
Functional and structural studies on membrane proteins are limited by the difficulty to produce them in large amount and in a functional state. In this review, we provide protocols to achieve high-level expression of membrane proteins in Escherichia coli. The T7 RNA polymerase-based expression system is presented in detail and protocols to assess and improve its efficiency are discussed. Protocols to isolate either membrane or inclusion bodies and to perform an initial qualitative test to assess the solubility of the recombinant protein are also included.
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32
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Carpenter B, Lebon G. Human Adenosine A 2A Receptor: Molecular Mechanism of Ligand Binding and Activation. Front Pharmacol 2017; 8:898. [PMID: 29311917 PMCID: PMC5736361 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2017.00898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2017] [Accepted: 11/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Adenosine receptors (ARs) comprise the P1 class of purinergic receptors and belong to the largest family of integral membrane proteins in the human genome, the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). ARs are classified into four subtypes, A1, A2A, A2B, and A3, which are all activated by extracellular adenosine, and play central roles in a broad range of physiological processes, including sleep regulation, angiogenesis and modulation of the immune system. ARs are potential therapeutic targets in a variety of pathophysiological conditions, including sleep disorders, cancer, and dementia, which has made them important targets for structural biology. Over a decade of research and innovation has culminated with the publication of more than 30 crystal structures of the human adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR), making it one of the best structurally characterized GPCRs at the atomic level. In this review we analyze the structural data reported for A2AR that described for the first time the binding of mode of antagonists, including newly developed drug candidates, synthetic and endogenous agonists, sodium ions and an engineered G protein. These structures have revealed the key conformational changes induced upon agonist and G protein binding that are central to signal transduction by A2AR, and have highlighted both similarities and differences in the activation mechanism of this receptor compared to other class A GPCRs. Finally, comparison of A2AR with the recently solved structures of A1R has provided the first structural insight into the molecular determinants of ligand binding specificity in different AR subtypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Byron Carpenter
- Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre, School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
| | - Guillaume Lebon
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle, Neuroscience Department, UMR CNRS 5203, INSERM U1191, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
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33
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Wright DJ, O'Reilly M, Tisi D. Engineering and purification of a thermostable, high-yield, variant of PfCRT, the Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter. Protein Expr Purif 2017; 141:7-18. [PMID: 28823509 DOI: 10.1016/j.pep.2017.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2017] [Revised: 06/16/2017] [Accepted: 08/10/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Historically chloroquine was used to treat the most deadly form of malaria, caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The selective pressure of chloroquine therapy led to the rapid emergence of chloroquine resistant parasites. Resistance has been attributed to the Plasmodium falciparum Chloroquine Resistance Transporter (PfCRT), an integral membrane protein of unknown structure. A PfCRT structure would provide new insights into how the protein confers chloroquine resistance and thereby also yield novel opportunities for developing anti-malarial therapies. Although PfCRT is an attractive target for characterisation and structure determination, very little work has been published on its expression and purification. Here we present a medium throughput protocol, employing Sf9 insect cells, for testing the expression, stability and purification yield of rationally designed PfCRT mutant constructs and constructs of a PfCRT orthologue from Neospora caninum (NcCRT). We have identified a conserved cysteine residue in PfCRT that results in elevated protein stability when mutated. Combining this mutation with the insertion of T4-lysozyme into a specific surface loop further augments PfCRT protein yield and thermostability. Screening also identified an NcCRT construct with an elevated purification yield. Furthermore it was possible to purify both PfCRT and NcCRT constructs at milligram-scales, with high purities and with size exclusion chromatography profiles that were consistent with monodispersed, homogeneous protein.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J Wright
- Astex Pharmaceuticals, 436 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 0QA, UK
| | - Marc O'Reilly
- Astex Pharmaceuticals, 436 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 0QA, UK
| | - Dominic Tisi
- Astex Pharmaceuticals, 436 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 0QA, UK.
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34
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Strege A, Carpenter B, Edwards PC, Tate CG. Strategy for the Thermostabilization of an Agonist-Bound GPCR Coupled to a G Protein. Methods Enzymol 2017; 594:243-264. [PMID: 28779842 DOI: 10.1016/bs.mie.2017.05.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Structure determination of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in the inactive state bound to high-affinity antagonists has been very successful through the implementation of a number of protein engineering and crystallization strategies. However, the structure determination of GPCRs in their fully active state coupled to a G protein is still very challenging. Recently, mini-G proteins were developed, which recapitulate the coupling of a full heterotrimeric G protein to a GPCR despite being less than one-third of the size. This allowed the structure determination of the agonist-bound adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR) coupled to mini-Gs. Although this is extremely encouraging, A2AR is very stable compared with many other GPCRs, particularly when an agonist is bound. In contrast, the agonist-bound conformation of the human corticotropin-releasing factor receptor is considerably less stable, impeding the formation of good quality crystals for structure determination. We have therefore developed a novel strategy for the thermostabilization of a GPCR-mini-G protein complex. In this chapter, we will describe the theoretical and practical principles of the thermostability assay for stabilizing this complex, discuss its strengths and weaknesses, and show some typical results from the thermostabilization process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annette Strege
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Byron Carpenter
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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35
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Yasuda S, Kajiwara Y, Toyoda Y, Morimoto K, Suno R, Iwata S, Kobayashi T, Murata T, Kinoshita M. Hot-Spot Residues to be Mutated Common in G Protein-Coupled Receptors of Class A: Identification of Thermostabilizing Mutations Followed by Determination of Three-Dimensional Structures for Two Example Receptors. J Phys Chem B 2017. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.7b02997] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Satoshi Yasuda
- Graduate
School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
- Molecular
Chirality Research Center, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
- Institute
of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Yuta Kajiwara
- Graduate
School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
| | - Yosuke Toyoda
- Graduate
School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Konoe-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
| | - Kazushi Morimoto
- Graduate
School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Konoe-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
| | - Ryoji Suno
- Graduate
School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Konoe-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
| | - So Iwata
- Graduate
School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Konoe-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
| | - Takuya Kobayashi
- Graduate
School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Yoshida-Konoe-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
| | - Takeshi Murata
- Graduate
School of Science, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
- Molecular
Chirality Research Center, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
- JST, PRESTO, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
| | - Masahiro Kinoshita
- Institute
of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan
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36
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Grisshammer R. New approaches towards the understanding of integral membrane proteins: A structural perspective on G protein-coupled receptors. Protein Sci 2017; 26:1493-1504. [PMID: 28547763 DOI: 10.1002/pro.3200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2017] [Revised: 05/12/2017] [Accepted: 05/15/2017] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Three-dimensional structure determination of integral membrane proteins has advanced in unprecedented detail our understanding of mechanistic events of how ion channels, transporters, receptors, and enzymes function. This exciting progress required a tremendous amount of methods development, as exemplified here with G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs): Optimizing the production of GPCRs in recombinant hosts; increasing the probability of crystal formation using high-affinity ligands, nanobodies, and minimal G proteins for co-crystallization, thus stabilizing receptors into one conformation; using the T4 lysozyme technology and other fusion partners to promote crystal contacts; advancing crystallization methods including the development of novel detergents, and miniaturization and automation of the lipidic cubic phase crystallization method; the concept of conformational thermostabilization of GPCRs; and developing microfocus X-ray synchrotron technologies to analyze small GPCR crystals. However, despite immense progress to explain how GPCRs function, many receptors pose intractable hurdles to structure determination at this time. Three emerging methods, serial femtosecond crystallography, micro electron diffraction, and single particle electron cryo-microscopy, hold promise to overcome current limitations in structural membrane biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reinhard Grisshammer
- Department of Health and Human Services, Membrane Protein Structure Function Unit, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland, 20852
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37
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Sojka AC, Brennan KM, Maizels ET, Young CD. The Science Behind G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) and Their Accurate Visual Representation in Scientific Research. THE JOURNAL OF BIOCOMMUNICATION 2017; 41:e6. [PMID: 36405408 PMCID: PMC9140105 DOI: 10.5210/jbc.v41i1.7309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) are transmembrane (TM) proteins that span the cell membrane seven times, and contain intracellular and extracellular domains, comprised of connecting loops, as well as terminal extension sequences. GPCRs bind ligands within their transmembrane and/or extracellular domains. Ligand binding elicits conformational changes that initiate downstream intracellular signaling events through arrestins and G proteins. GPCRs play central roles in many physiological processes, from sensory to neurological, cardiovascular, endocrine, and reproductive functions. This paper strives to provide an entry point to current GPCR science, and to identify visual approaches to communicate select aspects of GPCR structure and function with clarity and accuracy. The overall GPCR structure, primary sequence and the implications of sequence for membrane topology, ligand binding and helical rearrangements accompanying activation are considered and discussed in the context of visualization strategies, including two-dimensional topological diagrams, three-dimensional representations, and common errors that arise from these representations.
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38
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Shilling PJ, Bumbak F, Scott DJ, Bathgate RAD, Gooley PR. Characterisation of a cell-free synthesised G-protein coupled receptor. Sci Rep 2017; 7:1094. [PMID: 28439124 PMCID: PMC5430785 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-01227-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2016] [Accepted: 03/27/2017] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
G-protein coupled receptors are the largest family of integral membrane proteins found within the human genome. They function as receptors and modulators to a wide range of ligands and responses which are crucial for human health. GPCR study, specifically the investigation of structure and interaction to cognate ligands, is of high priority. Limitations for structural study can be traced in part, to obtaining suitable quantities of recombinant protein. We sought to address the limitations of traditional recombinant technologies by utilising an Escherichia coli based cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) approach for production of a thermostable neurotensin receptor 1 (en2NTS1). Initial results were promising, with a high amount (up to 2 mg/mL) of en2NTS1 produced, that had attained correct secondary structure. Meanwhile, concurrent experiments indicated that CFPS produced en2NTS1 showed non-competitive binding to the peptide ligand neurotensin8-13 when compared to E. coli produced en2NTS1. 1H-13C HMQC SOFAST NMR spectra were indicative of disrupted tertiary structure for CFPS produced 13CH3-methionine labelled en2NTS1. The results obtained, indicate CFPS produced en2NTS1 is not forming a discrete tertiary structure and that further development of the CFPS technique needs to be carried out.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick J Shilling
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
- Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, 30 Flemington Road, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Fabian Bumbak
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia
- Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, 30 Flemington Road, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, 30 Royal Parade, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3052, Victoria, Australia
| | - Daniel J Scott
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, 30 Royal Parade, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3052, Victoria, Australia
| | - Ross A D Bathgate
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia
- The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, 30 Royal Parade, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3052, Victoria, Australia
| | - Paul R Gooley
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
- Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, 30 Flemington Road, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
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39
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Nehmé R, Carpenter B, Singhal A, Strege A, Edwards PC, White CF, Du H, Grisshammer R, Tate CG. Mini-G proteins: Novel tools for studying GPCRs in their active conformation. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0175642. [PMID: 28426733 PMCID: PMC5398546 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175642] [Citation(s) in RCA: 170] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2017] [Accepted: 03/29/2017] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Mini-G proteins are the engineered GTPase domains of Gα subunits. They couple to GPCRs and recapitulate the increase in agonist affinity observed upon coupling of a native heterotrimeric G protein. Given the small size and stability of mini-G proteins, and their ease of expression and purification, they are ideal for biophysical studies of GPCRs in their fully active state. The first mini-G protein developed was mini-Gs. Here we extend the family of mini-G proteins to include mini-Golf, mini-Gi1, mini-Go1 and the chimeras mini-Gs/q and mini-Gs/i. The mini-G proteins were shown to couple to relevant GPCRs and to form stable complexes with purified receptors that could be purified by size exclusion chromatography. Agonist-bound GPCRs coupled to a mini-G protein showed higher thermal stability compared to the agonist-bound receptor alone. Fusion of GFP at the N-terminus of mini-G proteins allowed receptor coupling to be monitored by fluorescence-detection size exclusion chromatography (FSEC) and, in a separate assay, the affinity of mini-G protein binding to detergent-solubilised receptors was determined. This work provides the foundation for the development of any mini-G protein and, ultimately, for the structure determination of GPCRs in a fully active state.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rony Nehmé
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Byron Carpenter
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Ankita Singhal
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Annette Strege
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | | | - Courtney F. White
- Membrane Protein Structure Function Unit, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, United States of America
| | - Haijuan Du
- Membrane Protein Structure Function Unit, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, United States of America
| | - Reinhard Grisshammer
- Membrane Protein Structure Function Unit, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, United States of America
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40
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Krumm BE, Lee S, Bhattacharya S, Botos I, White CF, Du H, Vaidehi N, Grisshammer R. Structure and dynamics of a constitutively active neurotensin receptor. Sci Rep 2016; 6:38564. [PMID: 27924846 PMCID: PMC5141500 DOI: 10.1038/srep38564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2016] [Accepted: 11/03/2016] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Many G protein-coupled receptors show constitutive activity, resulting in the production of a second messenger in the absence of an agonist; and naturally occurring constitutively active mutations in receptors have been implicated in diseases. To gain insight into mechanistic aspects of constitutive activity, we report here the 3.3 Å crystal structure of a constitutively active, agonist-bound neurotensin receptor (NTSR1) and molecular dynamics simulations of agonist-occupied and ligand-free receptor. Comparison with the structure of a NTSR1 variant that has little constitutive activity reveals uncoupling of the ligand-binding domain from conserved connector residues, that effect conformational changes during GPCR activation. Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations show strong contacts between connector residue side chains and increased flexibility at the intracellular receptor face as features that coincide with robust signalling in cells. The loss of correlation between the binding pocket and conserved connector residues, combined with altered receptor dynamics, possibly explains the reduced neurotensin efficacy in the constitutively active NTSR1 and a facilitated initial engagement with G protein in the absence of agonist.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian E Krumm
- Membrane Protein Structure Function Unit, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, Maryland 20852, United States
| | - Sangbae Lee
- Department of Molecular Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, 1500 E Duarte Road, Duarte, California 91010, United States
| | - Supriyo Bhattacharya
- Department of Molecular Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, 1500 E Duarte Road, Duarte, California 91010, United States
| | - Istvan Botos
- Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, United States
| | - Courtney F White
- Membrane Protein Structure Function Unit, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, Maryland 20852, United States
| | - Haijuan Du
- Membrane Protein Structure Function Unit, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, Maryland 20852, United States
| | - Nagarajan Vaidehi
- Department of Molecular Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope, 1500 E Duarte Road, Duarte, California 91010, United States
| | - Reinhard Grisshammer
- Membrane Protein Structure Function Unit, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, Maryland 20852, United States
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41
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Pandey A, Shin K, Patterson RE, Liu XQ, Rainey JK. Current strategies for protein production and purification enabling membrane protein structural biology. Biochem Cell Biol 2016; 94:507-527. [PMID: 27010607 PMCID: PMC5752365 DOI: 10.1139/bcb-2015-0143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Membrane proteins are still heavily under-represented in the protein data bank (PDB), owing to multiple bottlenecks. The typical low abundance of membrane proteins in their natural hosts makes it necessary to overexpress these proteins either in heterologous systems or through in vitro translation/cell-free expression. Heterologous expression of proteins, in turn, leads to multiple obstacles, owing to the unpredictability of compatibility of the target protein for expression in a given host. The highly hydrophobic and (or) amphipathic nature of membrane proteins also leads to challenges in producing a homogeneous, stable, and pure sample for structural studies. Circumventing these hurdles has become possible through the introduction of novel protein production protocols; efficient protein isolation and sample preparation methods; and, improvement in hardware and software for structural characterization. Combined, these advances have made the past 10-15 years very exciting and eventful for the field of membrane protein structural biology, with an exponential growth in the number of solved membrane protein structures. In this review, we focus on both the advances and diversity of protein production and purification methods that have allowed this growth in structural knowledge of membrane proteins through X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM).
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Affiliation(s)
- Aditya Pandey
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
| | - Kyungsoo Shin
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
| | - Robin E. Patterson
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
| | - Xiang-Qin Liu
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
| | - Jan K. Rainey
- Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
- Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
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42
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Kajiwara Y, Yasuda S, Takamuku Y, Murata T, Kinoshita M. Identification of thermostabilizing mutations for a membrane protein whose three-dimensional structure is unknown. J Comput Chem 2016; 38:211-223. [DOI: 10.1002/jcc.24673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2016] [Revised: 10/24/2016] [Accepted: 10/30/2016] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Yuta Kajiwara
- Department of Fundamental Energy Science, Graduate School of Energy Science; Kyoto University; Uji Kyoto 611-0011 Japan
| | - Satoshi Yasuda
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science; Chiba University; 1-33 Yayoi-cho Inage Chiba 263-8522 Japan
- Molecular Chirality Research Center; Chiba University; 1-33 Yayoi-cho Inage Chiba 263-8522 Japan
- Laboratory for Complex Energy Processes Section, Institute of Advanced Energy; Kyoto University; Uji Kyoto 611-0011 Japan
| | - Yuuki Takamuku
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science; Chiba University; 1-33 Yayoi-cho Inage Chiba 263-8522 Japan
| | - Takeshi Murata
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science; Chiba University; 1-33 Yayoi-cho Inage Chiba 263-8522 Japan
- Molecular Chirality Research Center; Chiba University; 1-33 Yayoi-cho Inage Chiba 263-8522 Japan
- JST, PRESTO; 1-33 Yayoi-cho Inage Chiba 263-8522 Japan
| | - Masahiro Kinoshita
- Laboratory for Complex Energy Processes Section, Institute of Advanced Energy; Kyoto University; Uji Kyoto 611-0011 Japan
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43
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Shiroishi M, Moriya M, Ueda T. Micro-scale and rapid expression screening of highly expressed and/or stable membrane protein variants in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Protein Sci 2016; 25:1863-72. [PMID: 27479358 DOI: 10.1002/pro.2993] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2016] [Revised: 06/16/2016] [Accepted: 07/29/2016] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Purification of milligram quantities of target proteins is required for structural and biophysical studies. However, mammalian membrane proteins, many of which are important therapeutic targets, are too unstable to be expressed in heterologous hosts and to be solubilized by detergents. One of the most promising ways to overcome these limitations is to stabilize the membrane proteins by generating variants via introduction of truncated flexible regions, fusion partners, and site-directed mutagenesis. Therefore, an effective screening strategy is a key to obtaining successful protein stabilization. Herein, we report the micro-scale and high-throughput screening of stabilized membrane protein variants using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a host. All steps of the screening, including cultivation and disruption of cells, solubilization of the target protein, and the pretreatment for fluorescence-detected size exclusion chromatography (FSEC), could be performed in a 96-well microplate format. We demonstrated that the dispersion among wells was small, enabling detection of a small but important improvement in the protein stability. We also demonstrated that the thermally stable mutants of a human G protein-coupled receptor could be distinguished based on an increase of the peak height in the FSEC profile, which was well correlated with increased ligand binding activity of the protein. This strategy represents a significant platform for handling numerous mutants, similar to alanine scanning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mitsunori Shiroishi
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-Ku, Fukuoka, 812-8582, Japan.
| | - Mai Moriya
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-Ku, Fukuoka, 812-8582, Japan
| | - Tadashi Ueda
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-Ku, Fukuoka, 812-8582, Japan
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44
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Magnani F, Serrano-Vega MJ, Shibata Y, Abdul-Hussein S, Lebon G, Miller-Gallacher J, Singhal A, Strege A, Thomas JA, Tate CG. A mutagenesis and screening strategy to generate optimally thermostabilized membrane proteins for structural studies. Nat Protoc 2016; 11:1554-71. [PMID: 27466713 PMCID: PMC5268090 DOI: 10.1038/nprot.2016.088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
The thermostability of an integral membrane protein (MP) in detergent solution is a key parameter that dictates the likelihood of obtaining well-diffracting crystals that are suitable for structure determination. However, many mammalian MPs are too unstable for crystallization. We developed a thermostabilization strategy based on systematic mutagenesis coupled to a radioligand-binding thermostability assay that can be applied to receptors, ion channels and transporters. It takes ∼6-12 months to thermostabilize a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) containing 300 amino acid (aa) residues. The resulting thermostabilized MPs are more easily crystallized and result in high-quality structures. This methodology has facilitated structure-based drug design applied to GPCRs because it is possible to determine multiple structures of the thermostabilized receptors bound to low-affinity ligands. Protocols and advice are given on how to develop thermostability assays for MPs and how to combine mutations to make an optimally stable mutant suitable for structural studies. The steps in the procedure include the generation of ∼300 site-directed mutants by Ala/Leu scanning mutagenesis, the expression of each mutant in mammalian cells by transient transfection and the identification of thermostable mutants using a thermostability assay that is based on binding of an (125)I-labeled radioligand to the unpurified, detergent-solubilized MP. Individual thermostabilizing point mutations are then combined to make an optimally stable MP that is suitable for structural biology and other biophysical studies.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Ankita Singhal
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK
| | - Annette Strege
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK
| | - Jennifer A. Thomas
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK
| | - Christopher G. Tate
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK
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45
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Jazayeri A, Andrews SP, Marshall FH. Structurally Enabled Discovery of Adenosine A 2A Receptor Antagonists. Chem Rev 2016; 117:21-37. [PMID: 27333206 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.6b00119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Over the past decade there has been a revolution in the field of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) structural biology. Many years of innovative research from different areas have come together to fuel this significant change in the fortunes of this field, which for many years was characterized by the paucity of high-resolution structures. The determination to succeed has been in part due to the recognized importance of these proteins as drug targets, and although the pharmaceutical industry has been focusing on these receptors, it can be justifiably argued and demonstrated that many of the approved and commercially successful GPCR drugs can be significantly improved to increase efficacy and/or reduce undesired side effects. In addition, many validated targets in this class remain to be drugged. It is widely recognized that application of structure-based drug design approaches can help medicinal chemists a long way toward discovering better drugs. The achievement of structural biologists in providing high-resolution insight is beginning to transform drug discovery efforts, and there are a number of GPCR drugs that have been discovered by use of structural information that are in clinical development. This review aims to highlight the key developments that have brought success to GPCR structure resolution efforts and exemplify the practical application of structural information for the discovery of adenosine A2A receptor antagonists that have potential to treat multiple conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Jazayeri
- Heptares Therapeutics Limited , BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, United Kingdom
| | - Stephen P Andrews
- Heptares Therapeutics Limited , BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, United Kingdom
| | - Fiona H Marshall
- Heptares Therapeutics Limited , BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, United Kingdom
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46
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Homogeneous time-resolved G protein-coupled receptor–ligand binding assay based on fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy. Anal Biochem 2016; 502:24-35. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ab.2016.02.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2015] [Revised: 02/19/2016] [Accepted: 02/25/2016] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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47
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Ramadoss V, Dehez F, Chipot C. AlaScan: A Graphical User Interface for Alanine Scanning Free-Energy Calculations. J Chem Inf Model 2016; 56:1122-6. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.6b00162] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Vijayaraj Ramadoss
- Laboratoire
International Associé Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
et University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign, Unité
Mixte de Recherche n°7565, Université de Lorraine, B.P. 70239, 54506 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy cedex, France
| | - François Dehez
- Laboratoire
International Associé Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
et University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign, Unité
Mixte de Recherche n°7565, Université de Lorraine, B.P. 70239, 54506 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy cedex, France
| | - Christophe Chipot
- Laboratoire
International Associé Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
et University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign, Unité
Mixte de Recherche n°7565, Université de Lorraine, B.P. 70239, 54506 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy cedex, France
- Department
of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
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48
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Gapsys V, Michielssens S, Seeliger D, de Groot BL. Accurate and Rigorous Prediction of the Changes in Protein Free Energies in a Large-Scale Mutation Scan. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2016; 55:7364-8. [PMID: 27122231 PMCID: PMC5074281 DOI: 10.1002/anie.201510054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 93] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2015] [Revised: 01/19/2016] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Abstract
The prediction of mutation‐induced free‐energy changes in protein thermostability or protein–protein binding is of particular interest in the fields of protein design, biotechnology, and bioengineering. Herein, we achieve remarkable accuracy in a scan of 762 mutations estimating changes in protein thermostability based on the first principles of statistical mechanics. The remaining error in the free‐energy estimates appears to be due to three sources in approximately equal parts, namely sampling, force‐field inaccuracies, and experimental uncertainty. We propose a consensus force‐field approach, which, together with an increased sampling time, leads to a free‐energy prediction accuracy that matches those reached in experiments. This versatile approach enables accurate free‐energy estimates for diverse proteins, including the prediction of changes in the melting temperature of the membrane protein neurotensin receptor 1.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vytautas Gapsys
- Computational Biomolecular Dynamics Group, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Fassberg 11, 37077, Göttingen, Germany.
| | - Servaas Michielssens
- Computational Biomolecular Dynamics Group, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Fassberg 11, 37077, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Daniel Seeliger
- Lead Identification and Optimization Support, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG, Birkendorfer Strasse 65, 88397, Biberach, Germany
| | - Bert L de Groot
- Computational Biomolecular Dynamics Group, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Fassberg 11, 37077, Göttingen, Germany.
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49
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Gapsys V, Michielssens S, Seeliger D, de Groot BL. Accurate and Rigorous Prediction of the Changes in Protein Free Energies in a Large-Scale Mutation Scan. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2016. [DOI: 10.1002/ange.201510054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Vytautas Gapsys
- Computational Biomolecular Dynamics Group; Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry; Am Fassberg 11 37077 Göttingen Germany
| | - Servaas Michielssens
- Computational Biomolecular Dynamics Group; Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry; Am Fassberg 11 37077 Göttingen Germany
| | - Daniel Seeliger
- Lead Identification and Optimization Support; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG; Birkendorfer Strasse 65 88397 Biberach Germany
| | - Bert L. de Groot
- Computational Biomolecular Dynamics Group; Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry; Am Fassberg 11 37077 Göttingen Germany
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50
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Jazayeri A, Doré AS, Lamb D, Krishnamurthy H, Southall SM, Baig AH, Bortolato A, Koglin M, Robertson NJ, Errey JC, Andrews SP, Teobald I, Brown AJH, Cooke RM, Weir M, Marshall FH. Extra-helical binding site of a glucagon receptor antagonist. Nature 2016; 533:274-7. [PMID: 27111510 DOI: 10.1038/nature17414] [Citation(s) in RCA: 162] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2015] [Accepted: 02/09/2016] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Glucagon is a 29-amino-acid peptide released from the α-cells of the islet of Langerhans, which has a key role in glucose homeostasis. Glucagon action is transduced by the class B G-protein-coupled glucagon receptor (GCGR), which is located on liver, kidney, intestinal smooth muscle, brain, adipose tissue, heart and pancreas cells, and this receptor has been considered an important drug target in the treatment of diabetes. Administration of recently identified small-molecule GCGR antagonists in patients with type 2 diabetes results in a substantial reduction of fasting and postprandial glucose concentrations. Although an X-ray structure of the transmembrane domain of the GCGR has previously been solved, the ligand (NNC0640) was not resolved. Here we report the 2.5 Å structure of human GCGR in complex with the antagonist MK-0893 (ref. 4), which is found to bind to an allosteric site outside the seven transmembrane (7TM) helical bundle in a position between TM6 and TM7 extending into the lipid bilayer. Mutagenesis of key residues identified in the X-ray structure confirms their role in the binding of MK-0893 to the receptor. The unexpected position of the binding site for MK-0893, which is structurally similar to other GCGR antagonists, suggests that glucagon activation of the receptor is prevented by restriction of the outward helical movement of TM6 required for G-protein coupling. Structural knowledge of class B receptors is limited, with only one other ligand-binding site defined--for the corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 (CRF1R)--which was located deep within the 7TM bundle. We describe a completely novel allosteric binding site for class B receptors, providing an opportunity for structure-based drug design for this receptor class and furthering our understanding of the mechanisms of activation of these receptors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Jazayeri
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Andrew S Doré
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Daniel Lamb
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Harini Krishnamurthy
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Stacey M Southall
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Asma H Baig
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Andrea Bortolato
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Markus Koglin
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Nathan J Robertson
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - James C Errey
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Stephen P Andrews
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Iryna Teobald
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Alastair J H Brown
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Robert M Cooke
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Malcolm Weir
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
| | - Fiona H Marshall
- Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, BioPark, Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire AL7 3AX, UK
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