PMID: 24603153 , Related PDB id: 4OR2

Authors:

Wu H, Wang C, Gregory KJ, Han GW, Cho HP, Xia Y, Niswender CM, Katritch V, Meiler J, Cherezov V, Conn PJ, Stevens RC

Title:

Structure of a class C GPCR metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 bound to an allosteric modulator.

Journal:

Science. 2014 Apr 4;344(6179):58-64. doi: 10.1126/science.1249489. Epub 2014 Mar , 6.

Abstract:

The excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate induces modulatory actions via the metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGlus), which are class C G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). We determined the structure of the human mGlu1 receptor seven-transmembrane (7TM) domain bound to a negative allosteric modulator, FITM, at a resolution of 2.8 angstroms. The modulator binding site partially overlaps with the orthosteric binding sites of class A GPCRs but is more restricted than most other GPCRs. We observed a parallel 7TM dimer mediated by cholesterols, which suggests that signaling initiated by glutamate's interaction with the extracellular domain might be mediated via 7TM interactions within the full-length receptor dimer. A combination of crystallography, structure-activity relationships, mutagenesis, and full-length dimer modeling provides insights about the allosteric modulation and activation mechanism of class C GPCRs.