Constrained catecholamines gain β2AR selectivity through allosteric effects on pocket dynamics

Abstract

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) within the same subfamily often share high homology in their orthosteric pocket and therefore pose challenges to drug development. The amino acids that form the orthosteric binding pocket for epinephrine and norepinephrine in the β1 and β2 adrenergic receptors (β1AR and β2AR) are identical. Here, to examine the effect of conformational restriction on ligand binding kinetics, we synthesized a constrained form of epinephrine. Surprisingly, the constrained epinephrine exhibits over 100-fold selectivity for the β2AR over the β1AR. We provide evidence that the selectivity may be due to reduced ligand flexibility that enhances the association rate for the β2AR, as well as a less stable binding pocket for constrained epinephrine in the β1AR. The differences in the amino acid sequence of the extracellular vestibule of the β1AR allosterically alter the shape and stability of the binding pocket, resulting in a marked difference in affinity compared to the β2AR. These studies suggest that for receptors containing identical binding pocket residues, the binding selectivity may be influenced in an allosteric manner by surrounding residues, like those of the extracellular loops (ECLs) that form the vestibule. Exploiting these allosteric influences may facilitate the development of more subtype-selective ligands for GPCRs.

Structure and dynamics determine G protein coupling specificity at a class A GPCR

“…Binding affinities towards the human β 1 AR and β 2 AR were determined as described previously( 51 , 52 ). HEK293T cells were transiently transfected with the cDNA for β 1 AR and β 2 AR (obtained from the cDNA Resource Center, www.cdna.org).…”

“…Determination of receptor-stimulated β-arrestin-2 recruitment was performed applying the PathHunter assay (DiscoverX, Birmingham, U.K.), which is based on the measurement of fragment complementation of β-galactosidase as described( 51 , 55 ). In detail, HEK293T cells stably expressing the enzyme acceptor (EA) tagged β-arrestin-2 fusion protein were transfected with the cDNA for β 1 AR and β 2 AR, each fused to the ProLink-PK1 fragment for enzyme complementation, and transferred into 384 well microplates.…”

Highly biased agonism for GPCR ligands via nanobody tethering

“…Extensive effort has been invested to link the subtle differences in receptor structure induced by the binding of different ligands to biased signaling outputs 9 . In some examples, there is a clear connection between variation in the receptor conformation induced by the binding of a biased ligand and the type of signaling bias observed, though this is not true for all examples 10 , 11 . As such, prospective efforts for the rational design of biased agonists with desired signaling bias profiles are challenging.…”