01700nas a2200121 4500008004100000245009600041210006900137520118700206100002001393700001901413700001801432856012801450 2017 eng d00aCharacterizing clinically relevant natural variants of GPCRs using computational approaches0 aCharacterizing clinically relevant natural variants of GPCRs usi3 a

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are an important class of drug targets owing to their physiological role. A large number of clinically relevant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been observed in GPCRs that are linked to disease susceptibility and adverse drug response. It is therefore important to characterize the variants in order to improve GPCR therapeutics. Here, we discuss computational methods coupling molecular dynamics simulations with docking and free energy calculations to characterize the functional differences in GPCR variants. The hallmark of this approach is the explicit incorporation of receptor and membrane dynamics that allows us to analyze short- and long-range effects in the variant receptors. We use the SNPs reported in β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR) as a test case and highlight the recent successes in analyzing structural and dynamic differences in a series of population variants. The computational approach we discuss here has a twofold benefit: it helps to unravel the molecular mechanisms underlying hypo- or hyperfunctionality of variant receptors as well as prioritizing novel variants that must be experimentally tested.

1 aSengupta, Durba1 aSonar, Krushna1 aJoshi, Manali uhttps://library.ncl.res.in/content/characterizing-clinically-relevant-natural-variants-gpcrs-using-computational-approaches02387nas a2200157 4500008004100000245011200041210006900153260000800222490000700230520177700237100002202014700001802036700002802054700002002082856012702102 2021 eng d00aConformational plasticity and dynamic interactions of the N-terminal domain of the chemokine receptor CXCR10 aConformational plasticity and dynamic interactions of the Ntermi cMAY0 v173 a

The dynamic interactions between G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and their cognate protein partners are central to several cell signaling pathways. For example, the association of CXC chemokine receptor 1 (CXCR1) with its cognate chemokine, interleukin-8 (IL8 or CXCL8) initiates pathways leading to neutrophil-mediated immune responses. The N-terminal domain of chemokine receptors confers ligand selectivity, but unfortunately the conformational dynamics of this intrinsically disordered region remains unresolved. In this work, we have explored the interaction of CXCR1 with IL8 by microsecond time scale coarse-grain simulations, complemented by atomistic models and NMR chemical shift predictions. We show that the conformational plasticity of the apo-receptor N-terminal domain is restricted upon ligand binding, driving it to an open C-shaped conformation. Importantly, we corroborated the dynamic complex sampled in our simulations against chemical shift perturbations reported by previous NMR studies and show that the trends are similar. Our results indicate that chemical shift perturbation is often not a reporter of residue contacts in such dynamic associations. We believe our results represent a step forward in devising a strategy to understand intrinsically disordered regions in GPCRs and how they acquire functionally important conformational ensembles in dynamic protein-protein interfaces.

1 aKharche, Shalmali1 aJoshi, Manali1 aChattopadhyay, Amitabha1 aSengupta, Durba uhttps://library.ncl.res.in/content/conformational-plasticity-and-dynamic-interactions-n-terminal-domain-chemokine-receptor