Heterologous production and characterization of selected G-protein-coupled receptors and G-proteins for structural and functional studies
Authors:   , Patra Aditya Prasad 
Published: June 2023

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) from the largest family of receptors in the human body. They contain seven transmembrane helices. There are roughly 800-900 GPCR genes expressed in humans encoded by 4-5% of the human genome. These receptors are the most important signal transducers and play a crucial role in cell physiology and pathology, by using various extracellular stimuli to start complex intracellular signaling. GPCRs interact with a wide variety of stimuli from small molecules (photons, ions, amines) to large molecules (peptides, small proteins), and trigger downstream cascade effects by interacting with G-proteins, GPCR kinases, and ß-arrestin. Because of their crucial roles in many cellular functions, GPCRs are the most important drug targets for the pharmaceutical industry. Approximately 30% of the clinically approved drugs available in the market are against GPCRs. In this work achieved successful expression and purification of GPCRs from class-C and class-A families. Combined with biochemical experiments, DNP-ssNMR, and molecular simulation helped to decipher the mechanism of crosstalk between the allosteric modulator, and the orthosteric binding sites of the peptide receptor. The main findings and major highlights of this dissertation are outlined in the following paragraphs. The calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) belongs to the GPCR class-C family and contains a large extracellular domain. This receptor regulates Ca2+ homeostasis in blood and its absorption in the kidney and bone. To understand the molecular and structural mechanisms of these receptors their cDNAs were cloned into the pPICZ and pOET1 vectors to express them in Pichia pastoris and in Sf9 insect cells respectively. The CaSR was successfully expressed heterologously in Pichia pastoris and in the insect cell with high yield. The purified receptor purified in LMNG shows no aggregation in a monomeric state. Further optimization was performed to use it for cryo-EM sample preparation and structure determination. In 2nd part of the thesis, different mini G (mini Gs, mini Gi, mini Gqs, and mini Gsi) DNA constructs were made and expressed in E. coli. It's challenging to obtain active GPCR structures due to the instability of G-protein or G-protein-bound receptors. In this work, all mini-G proteins and chimera mini-G-protein-maltose binding protein (MBP) were cloned and expressed in E. coli and purified with a His-trap column with high purity. In the last part of the thesis, to decipher the mechanism of allosteric modulation of orthosteric binding sites in the bradykinin receptor was produced and characterized in insect cells. Angiotensin I converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), are very important drugs and are widely used for the treatment of hypertension, congestive heart failure, and diabetic neuropathy. These drugs target primarily the catalytic zinc center of the ACE. It has been shown that enalaprilat, a well-known ACEI, binds to a proposed zinc-binding site on hB1R and even directly activates the receptor. To obtain information on the influence of ACEIs on the receptor-peptide complex, and to have a better understanding of the molecular mechanism and structural plasticity of the bradykinin receptor and PAM, we used the three commercially available ACEIs captopril, enalaprilat, and lisinopril for our studies. An important result of this thesis is that though enalaprilat, captopril, and lisinopril all have similar functional properties in humans, each one regulates the orthosteric binding site of hB1R in a unique way. These findings provide atomic insights into the allosteric modulation of the bradykinin receptor. This study along with the effects of ACEI on the binding sites of receptors also deciphers the effects of the Zn2+ as well as the crosstalk between zinc binding sites and ACEI compounds. The binding of allosteric modulators induces distinct endogenous binding, which might aid in creating new possibilities in the pharmaceutical field.