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Functional selectivity of GPCR-directed drug action through location bias

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Abstract

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are increasingly recognized to operate from intracellular membranes as well as the plasma membrane. The β2-adrenergic GPCR can activate Gs-linked cyclic AMP (Gs-cAMP) signaling from endosomes. We show here that the homologous human β1-adrenergic receptor initiates an internal Gs-cAMP signal from the Golgi apparatus. By developing a chemical method to acutely squelch G-protein coupling at defined membrane locations, we demonstrate that Golgi activation contributes significantly to the overall cellular cAMP response. Golgi signaling utilizes a preexisting receptor pool rather than receptors delivered from the cell surface, requiring separate access of extracellular ligands. Epinephrine, a hydrophilic endogenous ligand, accesses the Golgi-localized receptor pool by facilitated transport requiring the organic cation transporter 3 (OCT3), whereas drugs can access the Golgi pool by passive diffusion according to hydrophobicity. We demonstrate marked differences, among both agonist and antagonist drugs, in Golgi-localized receptor access and show that β-blocker drugs currently used in the clinic differ markedly in ability to antagonize the Golgi signal. We propose 'location bias' as a new principle for achieving functional selectivity of GPCR-directed drug action.

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Figure 1: Golgi-localized β1AR achieves an activated conformation upon extracellular ligand application.
Figure 2: Golgi-localized β1AR activates Gs-mediated cAMP response.
Figure 3: Rapamycin-inducible recruitment of Nb80 blocks β1AR–Gs coupling and inhibits Gs-mediated cAMP response at both the plasma membrane and the Golgi.
Figure 4: Epinephrine accesses the Golgi-localized β1AR pool via corticosterone-sensitive membrane transport.
Figure 5: Pharmacological manipulations differentially regulate β1AR compartmentalized signaling.
Figure 6: Pharmacological manipulations differentially regulate β1AR-mediated PKA activation on the Golgi.

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  • 29 June 2017

    In the Supplementary Information originally posted online, the captions for Supplementary Videos 3 and 4 misstated the name of one of the markers in the list of videos. In the article HTML, the video captions should read, "Confocal image series of β1AR (cyan), Nb37-GFP (green) and the Golgi marker (red) expressing HeLa cells incubated with 10 μM isoproterenol." In the Supplementary Information PDF file, the video caption should read, "Confocal image series of β1AR (cyan), Nb37-GFP (green) and the Golgi marker (red) expressing HeLa cells incubated with 10 μM isoproterenol. The time between each frame is 3 s (t = 0 corresponds to the time of agonist addition)." The error has been corrected in this file and in the HTML as of 29 June 2017.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Kobilka, J. Steyaert, H. Bourne, N.G. Tsvetanova, G. Peng, B. Lobingier, D. Larsen and K. Thorn for assistance, advice and valuable discussion. These studies were supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA012864 and DA010711 to M.v.Z.), the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (HL122508 to R.I.), the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (EB022798 to B.H.), the National Institute of General Medicine (GM056444 to P.B.W.) and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (HL0927088 to M.C.) of the US National Institutes of Health, and the American Heart Association (15PRE21770003 to V.P.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

R.I. designed experimental strategy, carried out all of the experiments and analysis and took a lead role in writing the manuscript. V.P. contributed to the PKA experiments and analysis. D.M. contributed to the cAMP experimental design and analysis. B.H. provided essential reagents. P.B.W. contributed to the β-blocker experimental design and data interpretation. M.C. contributed to overall experimental strategy and interpretation and provided essential reagents. M.v.Z. and R.I. designed the experimental strategy and contributed to interpreting the results and writing the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark von Zastrow.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Results, Supplementary Figures 1–6. (PDF 3122 kb)

41589_2017_BFnchembio2389_MOESM2_ESM.avi

Confocal image series of β1AR-expressing HeLa cells with Nb80-GFP (green) and the Golgi marker (red), incubated with 10 μM epinephrine. (AVI 31980 kb)

41589_2017_BFnchembio2389_MOESM3_ESM.avi

Confocal image series of β1AR-expressing HeLa cells with Nb80-GFP (green) and Golgi marker (red), incubated with 10 μM dobutamine. (AVI 10967 kb)

41589_2017_BFnchembio2389_MOESM4_ESM.avi

Confocal image series of β1AR (cyan), Nb37-GFP (green) and the Golgi marker (red) expressing HeLa cells incubated with 10 μM isoproterenol. (AVI 16026 kb)

41589_2017_BFnchembio2389_MOESM5_ESM.avi

Confocal image series of β1AR (cyan), Nb37-GFP (green) and the Golgi marker (red) expressing HeLa cells incubated with 10 μM isoproterenol. (AVI 35010 kb)

Reversal of Nb80-GFP plasma membrane and the Golgi recruitment after addition of 10 μM metoprolol. (AVI 10882 kb)

Reversal of Nb80-GFP plasma membrane recruitment after addition of 100 μM sotalol. (AVI 9421 kb)

41589_2017_BFnchembio2389_MOESM8_ESM.avi

PKA Cα-YFP translocation from the Golgi membrane to the cytoplasm in β1AR-expressing HeLa cells upon addition of 10 μM dobutamine. (AVI 19913 kb)

41589_2017_BFnchembio2389_MOESM9_ESM.avi

Inhibition of PKA Cα-YFP translocation from the Golgi membrane to the cytoplasm in β1AR-expressing HeLa cells pre-treated with 10 μM metoprolol for 15 min and upon addition of 10 μM dobutamine. (AVI 28693 kb)

41589_2017_BFnchembio2389_MOESM10_ESM.avi

Delayed PKA Cα-YFP translocation from the Golgi membrane to the cytoplasm in β1AR-expressing HeLa cells pretreated with 5 mM sotalol for 15 min and upon addition of 10 μM dobutamine. (AVI 15820 kb)

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Irannejad, R., Pessino, V., Mika, D. et al. Functional selectivity of GPCR-directed drug action through location bias. Nat Chem Biol 13, 799–806 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2389

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