Patent Application: US-1179797-A

Abstract:
the present invention is related to nucleic acid molecules , the peptides encoded by said nucleic acid moleucles and the inhibitors direacted against said nucleic acid molecules or said peptides . the present invention concerns also the pharmaceutical composition , the diagnostic and / or dosage device comprising said products and methods for identifying the inhibitors according to the invention .

Description:
the orl1 receptor is an orphan receptor whose human [ 1 ] and murine [ 2 – 8 ] cdnas have been recently characterized . orl 1 ( opioid receptor - like 1 ) is structurally akin to opioid receptors and has been shown to be negatively coupled with adenylate cyclase [ 1 ]. orl 1 transcripts are abundant in a number of brain regions [ 6 , 18 , 20 ] such as the central nervous system , especially in limbic areas , hypothalamus , pons and spinal cord , suggesting that the orl 1 receptor may regulate a number of central processes including learning and memory , attention and emotions , homeostasis and sensory perception . the inventors describe hereafter the isolation of a peptide according to the invention , which is a ligand of the orl1 receptor . said naturally occurring ligand was purified on the basis of its anticipated ability to inhibit forskolin - induced camp accumulation in stable recombinant cho ( orl1 +) but not in non recombinant cho ( orl1 −) cells . the ligand is a novel neuropeptide which resembles the endorphin dynorphin a [ 9 , 19 ] and whose amino acid sequence is f - g - g - f t - g - a - r - k - s - a - r - k - l - a - n - q ( seq id no : 2 ). two other peptides were also isolated . their amino acid sequences are : f - s - e - f - m - r - q - y - l - v - l - s - m - q - s - s - q ( seq id no : 3 ) and t - l - h - q - n - g - n - v ( seq id no : 4 ). the first synthetic heptadecapeptide inhibits adenylate cyclase with an ic 50 1 nm in cho ( orl1 +) cells in culture and , when administered in vivo , induces hyperalgesia in mice . the latter effect is consistent with the observation that in vivo inhibition of orl1 expression with an antisense oligonucleotide induces hypoalgesia in these animals . taken together , our data support the notion that the first discovered heptadecapeptide is a potent orl1 receptor agonist and that it is endowed with pronociceptive properties . the second discovered heptadecapeptide presents also pronociceptive properties . comparison of the primary structures of orl 1 and of mu -, delta - and kappa - opioid receptors revealed numerous amino acid identities , not only in the putative transmembrane domains but also in the four putative cytoplasmic loops . although orl 1 does not resemble more one subtype of opioid receptor than the two others , it displays many acidic amino acid residues in its second exofacial loop , a trait that singles the kappa out of opioid receptor types . the orphan receptor , orl 1 , mediates inhibition of forskolin - induced accumulation of camp by the opiate etorphine in a recombinant etorphine is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude less potent in inhibiting the cyclase via the orl 1 than via an opioid receptor . the inventors have obtained evidence for a possible involvement of orl 1 in the perception of pain . the strategy used was that of the antisense oligonucleotide [ 10 ] to inhibit expression of the orl 1 receptor . repeated in vivo treatment with an antisense oligonucleotide to orl 1 mrna rendered mice less reactive to thermal nociceptive stimulation . fig1 shows that , in the hot plate assay of eddy and leimbach [ 11 ], the animals which had been treated with antisense oligonucleotide mas [ 25 , 9 ] displayed substantially increased latencies to rearing and escape jumping in comparison with saline - treated animals : 38 ± 2 ( p & lt ; 0 . 001 ) vs 20 ± 2 sec and 108 ± 6 ( p & lt ; 0 . 001 ) vs 71 ± 6 sec , respectively . most significantly , the “ missense ” oligonucleotide has [ 25 , 9 ], the human counterpart of mas [ 25 , 9 ], was totally ineffective in this respect , indicating that the hypoalgesic effects elicited by the antisense mas [ 25 , 9 ] were not due to non specific actions . since a treatment with the antisense oligonucleotide should have decreased expression of the receptor , it could be predicted that orl 1 normally facilitates pain perception . owing to the potential importance of this notion in neurophysiology and , possibly , neurophysiopathology , identification of an endogenous ligand of the orl 1 receptor had become a major issue . the strategy for isolating an endogenous ligand of orl1 was based on the fact that the orphan receptor is negatively coupled with adenylate cyclase . the desired compound was therefore expected to inhibit forskolin - induced accumulation of camp in the recombinant cho ( orl 1 + ) but not in the non recombinant cho ( orl 1 − ) cell line , as previously shown for etorphine ( fig2 ). the choice of the initial extraction procedure from rat brain was largely based on the structural homology of orl 1 with opioid receptors in general and the kappa receptor in particular . extracellular loop 2 of the kappa - opioid receptor is required for high affinity binding of dynorphins [ 12 , 13 ]. since orl 1 possesses such an acidic second exofacial loop , the ligand in question might be a peptide which resembled dynorphin . therefore , we used the extraction procedure that allowed teschemacher et al . to isolate a pituitary peptide that was later identified as dynorphin a [ 9 ]. the first purification step , size exclusion chromatography of the crude peptide extract on bio - gel p - 2 , proved efficient in revealing the desired activity , i . e . inhibition of camp accumulation in cho ( orl 1 + ) but not in cho ( orl 1 − ) cells ( fig3 a ). the active fractions were recovered in the void volume ( pool f1 ) and , to some extent in pool f2 ( not shown ), indicating that the biologically active substance had a m r around 1 , 800 , the nominal exclusion limit of bio - gel p - 2 . pools f3 to f10 were either inactive or equally effective in inhibiting ( or stimulating in the case of f7 ) adenylate cyclase in the two cho cell lines ( data not shown ). pool f1 was further purified by cation exchange fplc ( fig3 b ). activity was recovered in two consecutive 1 - ml fractions eluted at nearly 0 . 4 m nacl , indicating the strongly basic nature of the active compound ( s ). these two fractions were then applied directly onto a reversed phase hplc column and gradient - eluted with acetonitrile ( fig3 c ) to yield enough material of sufficient purity for protein sequencing . this material was found to be a heptadecapeptide of average molecular mass 1 , 810 and whose sequence was determined to be phe - gly - gly - phe - thr - gly - ala - arg - lys - ser - ala - arg - lys - leu - ala - asn - gln ( seq id no : 2 ). to make sure that the sequence in question was not that of a major contaminant , the heptadecapeptide was synthetized as well as its 1 tyr analogue for the purpose of generating a radioiodinated probe . the two peptides were obtained at ≧ 98 % purity as assessed by rp - hplc and had the predicted molecular masses ( 1 , 809 and 1 , 825 respectively ) as assessed by mass spectrometry . fig4 shows that the synthetic heptadecapeptide was very potent in inhibiting forskolin - induced accumulation of camp in the recombinant cho ( orl 1 + ) cell line . its ic 50 was 0 . 9 × 10 − 9 mol / l and maximal inhibition amounted to 90 %. the synthetic peptide had no action on cyclase in the non recombinant cho ( orl 1 − ) cell line at concentration up to 1 μm . interestingly , the 1 tyr analogue was as effective as the parent peptide on cyclase in cho cells expressing the receptor ( ic 50 = 1 . 0 × 10 − 9 mol / l , maximal inhibition & gt ; 90 %) and totally inactive in the wild type cells . the synthetic heptadecapeptide was also found to be active in vivo . lntracerebroventricular injection of 10 or 100 ng of the peptide rendered mice hyperreactive in the hot plate test [ 11 ]. fig5 shows that the hyperalgesic effect was dose dependent for 10 ng ( 5 . 5 pmol ) and 100 ng ( 55 pmol ) of peptide . a highly significant reduction of the latencies to rearing and escape jumping was observed at the larger dose of peptide : 14 ± 2 (− 36 %, p & lt ; 0 . 01 ) vs 22 ± 2 and 48 ± 2 (− 26 %, p & lt ; 0 . 001 ) vs 65 ± 3 sec , respectively . these effects were exactly the opposite of those produced by in vivo inhibition of expression of the orl 1 receptor ( fig1 ). the heptadecapeptide sequence did not exist in data banks although it was found to bear some resemblance with those of dynorphins , especially dynorphin a ( fig6 ). the structural homologies between this novel peptide and dynorphin a support the idea that the former may interact with the orl1 receptor as the latter does with the kappaopioid receptor [ 12 , 13 , 15 ]. in particular , the novel peptide may be viewed as made up of a n - terminal phe - gly - gly - phe ( residues 1 – 4 of seq id no : 2 ) “ message ” for biological activity , followed by a thr - gly - ala - arg - lys - ser - ala - arg - lys ( residues 5 – 13 of seq id no : 2 ) “ address ”, for enhanced potency [ 15 ]. the “ address ” contains all the basic amino acid residues that are anticipated to bind the acidic second exofacial loop of the orl1 receptor . the sequence of the endogenous ligand of orl1 is likely to be highly conserved across species . indeed , the inventors have also isolated a bovine brain peptide with the same biological activity and the same molecular mass ( 1 , 810 ± 2 ) as the rat peptide . there was not enough of this peptide for complete sequencing , but 10 residues could be determined ( 4 – 8 , 11 , 12 and 14 – 16 ) that were identical to the corresponding amino acids in the rat sequence . several investigators have pointed out that the orl 1 receptor might play a crucial role in pain perception [ 1 , 4 ] and locomotion / curiosity control . two in vivo observations now give experimental support to this notion : ( i ) inhibition of receptor expression with an antisense oligonucleotide induces hypoalgesia ( fig1 ), and ( ii ) intracerebroventricular administration of the heptadecapeptide induces hyperalgesia ( fig5 ), in mice . thus , the neuropeptide is endowed with pronociceptive properties and we suggest that it might be named nociceptin . together , nociceptin and its receptor , orl 1 , may represent the molecular basis to a novel pain regulatory modality in the central nervous system . finally , the striking structural homologies which exist between the orl1 and opioid receptors and between the novel peptide and endorphins , make it likely that the genes encoding the two classes of receptors and those encoding the two classes of neuropeptides have evolved in parallel , each from a common ancestor . since dynorphin a is one of several prodynorphin 16 - derived endorphins , one may anticipate that the novel peptide is but one representative of a larger family whose other members await identification . as the orl 1 is located in specific parts of the brain , such as the central nervous system , especially in limbic areas , hypothalamus , pons and spinal cord , said receptor and its ligand may be involved in the control of other functions and related behaviours . for instance , the orl 1 receptor and its ligand may regulate neuroendocrine secretion , stress , learning and memory , attention and emotions , homeostasis and sensory perception , motricity ( locomotion ), anxiety , instinctive behaviour , curiosity , . . . . thus , the present invention is also related to any molecule which may affect said functions and behaviours and which is a ligand of the orl 1 receptor . 2 . comparative organisation of the prepronociceptin ( ppnoc ) and opioid peptides precursor genes the present invention is also related to the nucleic acid sequence having more than 70 % homology with the nucleic acid sequence seq id no . 1 which encodes the peptide according to the invention . such a peptide is the prepronociceptin which may be cleaved into the two heptadecapeptides according to the invention . the fig7 ( upper panel ) shows the general organisation of the prepronociceptin ( ppmoc ) genes . the ppmoc genes consist of 4 hexons ( number i to iv ) interspersed by 3 introns ( a , b and c ). the filled boxes correspond to the coding region . atg , stop and poly a are respectively the transcription start , stop and poly - adenylation sites . the nucleotide sequence of the murine and human prepronociceptine ( ppnoc ) genes displays organizational and structural features which are very similar to those genes encoding the precursors to endogenous opioid peptides , enkephalins ( ppenk ), dynorphins / neo - endorphins ( ppdyn ) and β - endorphin ( ppomc ) ( fig7 , lower panel ). in particular , the translated region of the murine and human ppnoc genes is interrupted by an intron located between codons for amino acids 42 et 43 . an intron is also present at the equivalent site in the ppenk , ppdyn and ppomc genes . as it is the case in opioid peptide genes , another intron is also present in the 5 ′ untranslated region of the ppnoc gene . in addition to these two introns shared with the other precursor genes , the ppnoc gene also includes an intron in the 3 ′ untranslated region of the message , which is unusual . nevertheless , the present data are compatible with the notion that the nociceptin and opioid peptides genes have evolved in parallel from a common ancestor . the deduced amino acid sequence of prepronociceptin is highly conserved across murine and human species , especially the c - terminal quarter which hosts nociceptin itself . the n - terminal end of the precursor consists of a hydrophobic stretch of about 20 amino acids which may represent the signal peptide necessary for translocation into the rough endoplasmic reticulum , followed by a cystein - rich portion which is also found in other hormone precursors , especially those to endogenous opioid peptides . indeed , the pattern of cystein residues in pronociceptin is exactly the same as in proenkephalin and prodynorphin , suggesting a common mode of folding and / or processing of these precursor proteins . lowest homology across murine and human prepronociceptins is observed in the core of the molecule with insertion of a variable number of repeated acidic motifs . the unique nociceptin sequence is located in the c - terminal fourth of the precursor where it is flanked by canonic lys - arg proteolytic excision motifs . interestingly , pronociceptin contains other potential cleavage sites : one , lys - arg in the murine or arg - arg in the human sequence , is located upstream , and the other , arg - arg - arg , downstream of nociceptin . pronociceptin may therefore serve as the precursor not only to the two identified heptadecapeptides and the octapeptides but also to other physiologically important ( neuro ) peptides according to the invention . northern blot analysis ( fig8 ) revealed that prepronociceptin messenger rnas are present as a single species about 1 . 3 kb long in rat nerve tissue ( brain and spinal cord ) as well as in ovary . no signal could be detected in rna extracts from peripheral tissues , including liver , intestine , stomach , lung , spleen , adrenal gland and testis . the human prepronociceptin gene was mapped by performing polymerase chain reactions on the radiation hybrid cell lines of the genebridge 4 panel . the rhmapper program allowed to assigned unambiguously the gene to human chromosome 8 , between the sts markers wi - 5833 and wi - 1172 ( fig9 ). early behavioral and functional studies indicated that the nociceptin peptide might exert awakening and psychostimulant actions in mice . the results confirm the preliminary observations by examining the effects of nociceptin on the horizontal and vertical components of locomotion as well as on exploratory behaviour . since the orl 1 receptor resembles opioids receptors and nociceptin dynorphin a , it has been verified that nociceptin - induced stimulation of locomotion in mice is insensitive to the opioate antagonist naloxone [ 22 ] and the locomotor effects of the peptide involve , as expected , dopamine transmission . male swiss albino mice ( cd1 , charles river , saint aubin lès elbeuf , france ) weighting 20 – 25 g were used in this study . they were housed 20 per box ( l : 40 cm , w : 25 cm , h : 18 cm ), with unlimited access to standard semi - synthetic laboratory food and tap water , under controlled environmental conditions ( temperature : 22 ± 1 ° c ., 7 a . m . to 7 p . m . light - dark cycle ). experiments were carried out between 10 a . m . and 6 p . m . each animal was used once . injections ( 10 μl ) were performed free hand in the left ventricle [ 23 ]. the animals were routinely tested from the 5th minute after injection . locomotor activity was assessed using a digiscan animal activity monitor ( omnitek electronics inc .) this system consists of cages ( l : 20 cm , w : 20 cm , h : 30 cm ) surrounded by two surimposed sets each of 8 ir beam sensors , the lower set for monitoring horizontal and the upper , vertical deplacements , and interfaced with an apple iie computer . the cages were placed in dimly lit , sound - attenuated room . the hole board test [ 24 ] consists in a plastic square plate ( 20 × 20 cm , 1 cm thick ) with 16 holes , 2 cm in diameter , evenly spaced at 3 . 5 cm from the edges . the animals were placed in the centre of the plate and the number of head dips was measured during 4 consecutive periods of 5 minutes each . the nociceptin peptide according to the invention was solid phase synthesised . naloxone hydrochloride was from endo and sch 23390 ® [ 25 ] from schering . haloperidol [ 26 ] solutions were obtained by dilution in saline ( nacl 0 . 9 % w : v ) of haldol ® ( janssen ). the data are expressed as the mean ± standard error . differences between groups were assessed by two - ways analysis of variance ( anova ) and the student &# 39 ; s t - test . p & lt ; 0 . 05 was taken as the significant level of difference . the fig1 shows that i . c . v . injection of a dose of nociceptin at low 10 ng / mouse elicited a statistically significant increase in horizontal locomotor activity . this effect was even more pronounced and , apparently , culminated at the dose of 100 ng . however , the stimulant action of the peptide lasted no more than 20 minutes . at higher doses ( 1 and 10 μg / mouse ), nociceptin appeared to stimulate locomotion yet after a delay of at least 20 minutes following introduction into the monitor . the peptide also increased significantly verticalisation during the periods 0 – 10 and 10 – 20 minutes of observation at the doses of 100 ng and 1 μg . the results are expressed in the table 1 . in the hole board test , nociceptin ( 100 ng / mouse , i . c . v .) induced a significant increase in the number of explored holes ( see table 2 ). during the 20 minutes period of observation , this number increased from 155 ± 15 in saline up to 226 ± 18 in peptide - treated animals ( p & lt ; 0 . 01 ). on the contrary , when the animals were injected with morphin ( 5 mg / kg , s . c .) and tested 15 minutes later under the same conditions as nociceptin - treated animals , the number of explored holes was considerably reduced ( 150 ± 8 in saline vs 24 ± 2 in morphin - treated group ( p & lt ; 0 . 001 )). naloxone ( 0 . 0 – 4 . 5 mg / kg , s . c .) injected 10 minutes before i . c . v . administration of 100 ng nociceptin did not suppress the motor - stimulant effect of the peptide observed during the first 10 minutes of testing ( pretreatment × treatment interaction f ( 1 , 20 )= 0 . 023 ) ( fig1 ). in contrast , the d1 dopamine receptor antagonist sch 23390 proved to be effective in antagonizing nociceptin stimulation of locomotor activity in mice ( pretreatment × treatment interaction f ( 1 , 20 )= 4 . 25 ( p & lt ; 0 . 01 )) ( fig1 ). similarly the d2 dopamine receptor antagonist haloperidol antagonized nociceptin - induces stimulation of locomotor activity ( pretreatment × treatment interaction f ( 1 , 20 )= 2 . 57 ; p & lt ; 0 . 05 ) ( fig1 ). the neuropeptide nociceptin stimulates both the horizontal and vertical components of the locomotion in mice . this effect is already seen at the low dose of 10 ng / mouse and seems to be effective at higher dose of 100 ng / mouse . regardless of the dose , nociceptin &# 39 ; s action appears to be of short duration , suggesting a rapid inactivation of the peptide under the experimental conditions . at the highest dose tested ( 10 μg ), the stimulation of horizontal locomotor activity by nociceptin does not show up until at least 25 minutes following i . c . v . injection as it is exerted , during this period , an effect opposing those of low doses of the peptide . since it has been previously emphasized that nociceptin resembles dynorphin a , which itself and other agonists of kappa opioid receptors depress locomotion , one could argue that such opposing action at high dose of nociceptin might follow from the aspecific stimulation of these opioid receptors . the stimulation of locomotor activity by nociceptin does not involve opioid receptors since the peptide displays none of the properties that are characteristic of morphin . in particular , the locomotor effect which is induced by nociceptin includes a vertical component and it does not correspond to the so - called “ running fit ” behaviour elicited by the opiate . neither does nociceptin induce the straub tail phenomenon . nociceptin is hyperalgesic in vivo and its stimulatory action on locomotion is not antagonized by the opiate antagonist naloxone . another large difference resides in the fact that nociceptin stimulates “ curiosity ” while morphin strongly decreases it . the motor - stimulant effect of nociceptin is unlikely to involve delta opioid receptor although delta opioid agonists are known to stimulate both the horizontal and vertical components of locomotion , yet this effect is reversed by naloxone and is accompanied by a naloxone - reversible analgesia in the hot plate test . taken together , these data argue against the notion that the stimulant / awakening actions of the nociceptin in mice involve opioid receptors . most psychostimulant agents operate through an increase in central dopaminergic transmission . to test this hypothesis , the interaction of nociceptin with the d2 dopamine receptor antagonist haloperidol and the d1 dopamine receptor antagonist sch 23390 ® was considered . antagonism was observes in each case , indicating that dopamine neurones , likely mesolimbic ones , are involved in nociceptin - 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