The species selectivity of chemically distinct tachykinin nonpeptide antagonists is dependent on common divergent residues of the rat and human neurokinin-1 receptors

CJ Jensen, NP Gerard, TW Schwartz and U Gether

University Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.

During evolution mutations have occurred in peptide receptors that are neutral with respect to binding of the natural peptide ligand but frequently affect the binding of nonpeptide antagonists. By systematically introducing the nonconserved residues from the human neurokinin (NK)-1 receptor into the corresponding rat receptor we have attempted to localize the structural elements that are responsible for 15-76-fold higher affinity of three tachykinin nonpeptide antagonists for the human receptor, compared with the corresponding rat receptor. Surprisingly, exchange of the four divergent residues located around the previously located apparent binding site for CP 96,345 and FK 888 at the top of transmembrane segment (TM) V and VI, either alone or as a group, did not affect the binding of these nonpeptide compounds. However, substitution of Ser290 in TM VII of the rat receptor with isoleucine present in the human receptor increased the affinity for FK 888 20-fold and that for CP 96345 6-fold, corresponding to an affinity that was only about 4-fold less than the affinity for the human NK-1 receptor. Full human-like affinity for FK 888 and CP 96,345 could be conveyed to the rat receptor by the combined substitution of Ser290 in TM VII to isoleucine and Leu116 in TM III to valine. The NK-2 receptor- selective compound SR 48,968 was found to bind with low affinity to the human NK-1 receptor but with 15-fold even lower affinity to the rat receptor. Substitution of residue 290, which is situated within the previously located binding site for this compound, could completely account for this difference. These data demonstrate that the species selectivities of the nonpeptide antagonists CP 96345, FK 888, and SR 48,968, independently of clear differences in their chemical structures and modes of discovery, have a similar structural basis, being dependent on two divergent residues that apparently are not involved in peptide agonist binding.

Volume 45, Issue 2, pp. 294-299, 02/01/1994
Copyright © 1994 by American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

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