Most cell-surface receptors for cytokines and growth factors signal as dimers, but it is unclear whether remodeling receptor dimer topology is a viable strategy to “tune” signaling output. We ...utilized diabodies (DA) as surrogate ligands in a prototypical dimeric receptor-ligand system, the cytokine Erythropoietin (EPO) and its receptor (EpoR), to dimerize EpoR ectodomains in non-native architectures. Diabody-induced signaling amplitudes varied from full to minimal agonism, and structures of these DA/EpoR complexes differed in EpoR dimer orientation and proximity. Diabodies also elicited biased or differential activation of signaling pathways and gene expression profiles compared to EPO. Non-signaling diabodies inhibited proliferation of erythroid precursors from patients with a myeloproliferative neoplasm due to a constitutively active JAK2V617F mutation. Thus, intracellular oncogenic mutations causing ligand-independent receptor activation can be counteracted by extracellular ligands that re-orient receptors into inactive dimer topologies. This approach has broad applications for tuning signaling output for many dimeric receptor systems.
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•Ligand-driven re-orientation of receptor dimer topology tunes signaling output•Diabodies elicit differential signal activation•Non-agonistic diabodies counteract intracellular oncogenic signaling
Synthetic ligands called diabodies can change the amplitude and nature of signal activation, or counteract oncogenic ligand-independent intracellular signaling, by re-orienting the geometry of receptor dimerization.
Most secreted growth factors and cytokines are functionally pleiotropic because their receptors are expressed on diverse cell types. While important for normal mammalian physiology, pleiotropy limits ...the efficacy of cytokines and growth factors as therapeutics. Stem cell factor (SCF) is a growth factor that acts through the c-Kit receptor tyrosine kinase to elicit hematopoietic progenitor expansion but can be toxic when administered in vivo because it concurrently activates mast cells. We engineered a mechanism-based SCF partial agonist that impaired c-Kit dimerization, truncating downstream signaling amplitude. This SCF variant elicited biased activation of hematopoietic progenitors over mast cells in vitro and in vivo. Mouse models of SCF-mediated anaphylaxis, radioprotection, and hematopoietic expansion revealed that this SCF partial agonist retained therapeutic efficacy while exhibiting virtually no anaphylactic off-target effects. The approach of biasing cell activation by tuning signaling thresholds and outputs has applications to many dimeric receptor-ligand systems.
•An engineered variant of stem cell factor acts as partial agonist of c-Kit•SCF partial agonist exhibits biased activation of HSPCs versus mast cells•Partial agonist of c-Kit retains therapeutic efficacy but mitigates toxicity in vivo
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A ligand engineering strategy is used to amplify hematopoietic stem cells but avoid unwanted off-target effects mediated by mast cells.
μ-Opioid receptors are among the most studied G protein-coupled receptors because of the therapeutic value of agonists, such as morphine, that are used to treat chronic pain. However, these drugs ...have significant side effects, such as respiratory suppression, constipation, allodynia, tolerance, and dependence, as well as abuse potential. Efforts to fine tune pain control while alleviating the side effects of drugs, both physiological and psychological, have led to the development of a wide variety of structurally diverse agonist ligands for the μ-opioid receptor, as well as compounds that target κ- and δ-opioid receptors. In recent years, the identification of allosteric ligands for some G protein-coupled receptors has provided breakthroughs in obtaining receptor subtype-selectivity that can reduce the overall side effect profiles of a potential drug. However, positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) can also have the specific advantage of only modulating the activity of the receptor when the orthosteric agonist occupies the receptor, thus maintaining spatial and temporal control of receptor signaling in vivo. This second advantage of allosteric modulators may yield breakthroughs in opioid receptor research and could lead to drugs with improved side-effect profiles or fewer tolerance and dependence issues compared with orthosteric opioid receptor agonists. Here, we describe the discovery and characterization of μ-opioid receptor PAMs and silent allosteric modulators, identified from high-throughput screening using a β-arrestin–recruitment assay.
Chemokines display considerable promiscuity with multiple ligands and receptors shared in common, a phenomenon that is thought to underlie their biochemical “redundancy.” Their receptors are part of ...a larger seven-transmembrane receptor superfamily, commonly referred to as G protein-coupled receptors, which have been demonstrated to be able to signal with different efficacies to their multiple downstream signaling pathways, a phenomenon referred to as biased agonism. Biased agonism has been primarily reported as a phenomenon of synthetic ligands, and the biologic prevalence and importance of such signaling are unclear. Here, to assess the presence of biased agonism that may underlie differential signaling by chemokines targeting the same receptor, we performed a detailed pharmacologic analysis of a set of chemokine receptors with multiple endogenous ligands using assays for G protein signaling, β-arrestin recruitment, and receptor internalization. We found that chemokines targeting the same receptor can display marked differences in their efficacies for G protein- or β-arrestin-mediated signaling or receptor internalization. This ligand bias correlates with changes in leukocyte migration, consistent with different mechanisms underlying the signaling downstream of these receptors induced by their ligands. These findings demonstrate that biased agonism is a common and likely evolutionarily conserved biological mechanism for generating qualitatively distinct patterns of signaling via the same receptor in response to different endogenous ligands.
Background: Chemokines have been thought to act in a redundant fashion through their shared receptors.
Results: Chemokines can display different efficacies for G proteins and β-arrestins, resulting in different chemotactic profiles.
Conclusion: Chemokines can behave as biased agonists at their receptors, leading to functionally distinct, not redundant, responses.
Significance: Biased agonism plays an important role in biological signaling.
Cytokine and growth-factor ligands typically signal through homo- or hetero-dimeric cell surface receptors via Janus Kinase (JAK/TYK), or Receptor Tyrosine Kinase (RTK)-mediated ...trans-phosphorylation. However, the number of receptor dimer pairings occurring in nature is limited to those driven by natural ligands encoded within our genome. We have engineered synthethic cytokines (synthekines) that drive formation of cytokine receptor dimer pairings that are not formed by endogenous cytokines and that are not found in nature, and which activate distinct signaling programs. We show that a wide range of non-natural cytokine receptor hetero-dimers are competent to elicit a signaling output. We engineered synthekine ligands that assembled IL-2Rβ/IL-4Rα or IL-4Rα/IFNAR2 receptor heterodimers, that do not occur naturally, triggering signaling and functional responses distinct from those activated by the endogenous cytokines IL-2, IL-4, and IFN. Furthermore, hybrid synthekine ligands that dimerized a JAK/STAT cytokine receptor with a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) also elicited a signaling response. Synthekines represent a new family of synthetic ligands with pre-defined receptors, but 'orphan' functions, that enable the full combinatorial scope of dimeric signaling receptors encoded within the human genome to be exploited for basic research and drug discovery.
A variety of G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) screening technologies have successfully partnered a number of GPCRs with their cognate ligands. GPCR-mediated β-arrestin recruitment is now recognized ...as a distinct intracellular signaling pathway, and ligand-receptor interactions may show a bias toward β-arrestin over classical GPCR signaling pathways. We hypothesized that the failure to identify native ligands for the remaining orphan GPCRs may be a consequence of biased β-arrestin signaling. To investigate this, we assembled 10 500 candidate ligands and screened 82 GPCRs using PathHunter β-arrestin recruitment technology. High-quality screening assays were validated by the inclusion of liganded receptors and the detection and confirmation of these established ligand-receptor pairings. We describe a candidate endogenous orphan GPCR ligand and a number of novel surrogate ligands. However, for the majority of orphan receptors studied, measurement of β-arrestin recruitment did not lead to the identification of cognate ligands from our screening sets. β-Arrestin recruitment represents a robust GPCR screening technology, and ligand-biased signaling is emerging as a therapeutically exploitable feature of GPCR biology. The identification of cognate ligands for the orphan GPCRs and the extent to which receptors may exist to preferentially signal through β-arrestin in response to their native ligand remain to be determined.
Allosteric modulators of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) have a number of potential advantages compared to agonists or antagonists that bind to the orthosteric site of the receptor. These include ...the potential for receptor selectivity, maintenance of the temporal and spatial fidelity of signaling in vivo, the ceiling effect of the allosteric cooperativity which may prevent overdose issues, and engendering bias by differentially modulating distinct signaling pathways. Here we describe the discovery, synthesis, and molecular pharmacology of δ-opioid receptor-selective positive allosteric modulators (δ PAMs). These δ PAMs increase the affinity and/or efficacy of the orthosteric agonists leu-enkephalin, SNC80 and TAN67, as measured by receptor binding, G protein activation, β-arrestin recruitment, adenylyl cyclase inhibition, and extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) activation. As such, these compounds are useful pharmacological tools to probe the molecular pharmacology of the δ receptor and to explore the therapeutic potential of δ PAMs in diseases such as chronic pain and depression.
Small interfering RNA (siRNA) technology facilitates the study of loss of gene function in mammalian cells and animal models, but generating multiple siRNA vectors using oligonucleotides is slow, ...inefficient and costly. Here we describe a new, enzyme-mediated method for generating numerous functional siRNA constructs from any gene of interest or pool of genes. To test our restriction enzyme-generated siRNA (REGS) system, we silenced a transgene and two endogenous genes and obtained the predicted phenotypes. REGS generated on average 34 unique siRNAs per kilobase of sequence. REGS enabled us to create enzymatically a complex siRNA library (>4 x 10(5) clones) from double-stranded cDNA encompassing known and unknown genes with 96% of the clones containing inserts of the appropriate size.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling is involved in a wide range of physiological processes and diseases, and around one-half of currently used drugs target GPCRs. Assays for the signaling of ...GPCRs have suffered from drawbacks, including low signal-to-noise, temporally transient signals, and difficulty in applying a single assay to a wide range of GPCRs. We have developed a set of assays for G-protein-coupled receptor signaling based on β-galactosidase enzyme complementation in live mammalian cells. We previously described an assay for GPCR activation by monitoring the binding of β-arrestin to the receptor. Here we describe a second assay that monitors the internalization of GPCRs to endosomes, an event that follows receptor activation and is critical in desensitizing and resensitizing the receptor. We show that both assays display high signal-to-noise ratios with low variability and are quantitative for a wide range of GPCRs. EC₅₀s obtained with these assays closely match results reported in the literature. Finally, we show that these assays are readily adapted to high-throughput chemical screens. Thus, these two assays for monitoring G-protein-coupled receptor activation and internalization should prove valuable in basic biological studies as well as in high-throughput screens.--Hammer, M. M., Wehrman, T. S., Blau, H. M. A novel enzyme complementation-based assay for monitoring G-protein-coupled receptor internalization.
B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling has emerged as a vital and targetable component in a number of B-cell malignancies. The recent approval and numerous ongoing clinical trials of small molecule kinase ...inhibitors targeting this pathway has bolstered efforts to define the signaling proteins critical to BCR activity. To this end, we first mapped BCR signaling using 93 different activation state antibodies. These results provided a high level view of BCR signaling across more than 80 intracellular proteins covering canonical and non-canonical BCR effectors. The signaling responses were then modulated with known kinase inhibitors to associate kinase activity with pathway activation. Using these data as a backdrop, three BTK inhibitors (AVL-292, CNX-774, and ibrutinib) were tested to determine which components of BCR signaling are commonly inhibited by these molecules. These studies showed that ibrutinib was the most promiscuous of the inhibitors but that all three compounds blocked activation of the S6 signal transduction pathway. Interestingly, a number of other oncogenic pathways remained intact after inhibitor treatment including the MAPK-ERK and AKT signaling pathways. After identifying the S6 pathway as a commonly blocked effector of BCR signaling, we validated the pathway readouts for their use as ex vivo pharmacodynamic assays in whole blood patient samples. Our results show that the assays yield the appropriate precision and reproducibility necessary to be used as PD markers in a clinical trial setting. Thus, the workflow of pathway phenotyping to inhibitor testing and finally to clinical biomarker development further defined the activation patterns of BCR signaling and identified novel clinical readouts for measuring BCR inhibitor activity.
Wehrman:Primity Bio: Employment.
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