G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) play essential roles in various physiological processes, and are widely targeted by pharmaceutical drugs. Despite their importance, studying GPCRs has been problematic due to difficulties in isolating large quantities of these membrane proteins in forms that retain their ligand binding capabilities. Creating water-soluble variants of GPCRs by mutating the exterior, transmembrane residues provides a potential method to overcome these difficulties. Here we present the first study involving the computational design, expression and characterization of water-soluble variant of a human GPCR, the human mu opioid receptor (MUR), which is involved in pain and addiction. An atomistic structure of the transmembrane domain was built using comparative (homology) modeling and known GPCR structures. This structure was highly similar to the subsequently determined structure of the murine receptor and was used to computationally design 53 mutations of exterior residues in the transmembrane region, yielding a variant intended to be soluble in aqueous media. The designed variant expressed in high yield in Escherichia coli and was water soluble. The variant shared structural and functionally related features with the native human MUR, including helical secondary structure and comparable affinity for the antagonist naltrexone (K d  = 65 nM). The roles of cholesterol and disulfide bonds on the stability of the receptor variant were also investigated. This study exemplifies the potential of the computational approach to produce water-soluble variants of GPCRs amenable for structural and functionally related characterization in aqueous solution.

With the recently solved crystal structure of the murine mu opioid receptor, the elucidation of the structure function relationships of the human mu receptor becomes feasible. In this study, we analyzed the available structural information along with ligand binding and G protein activation of human mu receptor. Affinity determinations were performed in a HEK293 cell line stably transfected with the human mu opioid receptor for 6 different agonists (morphine, DMAGO, and herkinorn) and antagonists (naloxone, beta-Funaltrexamine, and Norbinaltorphimine) based on the method. G protein activation was investigated in membrane preparations containing human mu receptors treated with the agonist, partial agonist, or antagonist compounds. 4DKL.pdb was utilized for structural analysis and docking calculations for 28 mu receptor ligands. The predicted affinities from docking were compared with those experimentally determined. While all known ligands bind to the receptor through the same binding site that is large enough to accommodate molecules of various sizes, interaction with D147 (D149 in human mu receptor) is essential for binding. No distinguishable interaction pattern in the binding site for agonist, partial agonist, or antagonist to predict pharmacological activities was found. The failure to reconcile the predicted affinities from docking with experimental values indicates that the receptor might undergo significant conformational changes from one state to the other states upon different ligand binding. A simplified model to understand the complicated system is proposed and further study on these multiple conformations using high resolution structural approaches is suggested.