Title
Design and structural validation of peptide–drug conjugate ligands of the kappa-opioid receptor
Author
Edin Muratspahić
Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington
Author
Kristine Deibler
Novo Nordisk Research Center Seattle
Author
Jianming Han
Center for Clinical Pharmacology, University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy at St. Louis and Washington University School of Medicine
... show all
Abstract
Despite the increasing number of GPCR structures and recent advances in peptide design, the development of efficient technologies allowing rational design of high-affinity peptide ligands for single GPCRs remains an unmet challenge. Here, we develop a computational approach for designing conjugates of lariat-shaped macrocyclized peptides and a small molecule opioid ligand. We demonstrate its feasibility by discovering chemical scaffolds for the kappa-opioid receptor (KOR) with desired pharmacological activities. The designed De Novo Cyclic Peptide (DNCP)-β-naloxamine (NalA) exhibit in vitro potent mixed KOR agonism/mu-opioid receptor (MOR) antagonism, nanomolar binding affinity, selectivity, and efficacy bias at KOR. Proof-of-concept in vivo efficacy studies demonstrate that DNCP-β-NalA(1) induces a potent KOR-mediated antinociception in male mice. The high-resolution cryo-EM structure (2.6 Å) of the DNCP-β-NalA–KOR–Gi1 complex and molecular dynamics simulations are harnessed to validate the computational design model. This reveals a network of residues in ECL2/3 and TM6/7 controlling the intrinsic efficacy of KOR. In general, our computational de novo platform overcomes extensive lead optimization encountered in ultra-large library docking and virtual small molecule screening campaigns and offers innovation for GPCR ligand discovery. This may drive the development of next-generation therapeutics for medical applications such as pain conditions.
Keywords
PeptidesProtein designReceptor pharmacology
Object type
Language
English [eng]
Persistent identifier
https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:2081612
Appeared in
Title
Nature Communications
Volume
14
ISSN
2041-1723
Issued
2023
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date issued
2023
Access rights
Rights statement
© The Author(s) 2023

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