RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Partial Agonism, Neutral Antagonism, and Inverse Agonism at the Human Wild-Type and Constitutively Active Cholecystokinin-2 Receptors JF Molecular Pharmacology JO Mol Pharmacol FD American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics SP 680 OP 690 DO 10.1124/mol.105.019992 VO 69 IS 3 A1 Magali Foucaud A1 Irina G. Tikhonova A1 Ingrid Langer A1 Chantal Escrieut A1 Marlène Dufresne A1 Cathy Seva A1 Bernard Maigret A1 Daniel Fourmy YR 2006 UL http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/69/3/680.abstract AB Cholecystokinin receptor-2 (CCK2R) is a G protein receptor that regulates a number of physiological functions. Activation of CCK2R and/or expression of a constitutively active CCK2R variant may contribute to human diseases, including digestive cancers. Search for antagonists of the CCK2R has been an important challenge during the last few years, leading to discovery of a set of chemically distinct compounds. However, several early-discovered antagonists turned out to be partial agonists. In this context, we carried out pharmacological characterization of six CCK2R antagonists using COS-7 cells expressing the human CCK2R or a CCK2R mutant having a robust constitutive activity on inositol phosphates production, and we investigated the molecular mechanisms which, at a CCK2R binding site, account for these features. Results indicated that three compounds, 3R(+)-N-(2,3-dihydro-1-methyl-2-oxo-5-phenyl-1H-1,4-benzodiazepin-3-yl)-N′-(3-methylphenyl)urea (L365,260), 4-{[2-[[3-(lH-indol-3-yl)-2-methyl-1-oxo-2-[[[1.7.7-trimethyl-bicyclo[2.2.1]hept-2-yl)-oxy]carbonyl]amino]propyl]amino]-1-phenylethyl]amino-4-oxo-[lS-la.2[S*(S*)]4a]}-butanoate N-methyl-d-glucamine (PD135,158), and (R)-1-naphthalenepropanoic acid, b-[2-[[2-(8-azaspiro-[4.5]dec-8-ylcarbonyl)-4,6-dimethylphenyl]amino]-2-oxoethyl] (CR2945), were partial agonists; one molecule, 1-[(R)-2,3-dihydro-1-(2,3-dihydro-1-(2-methylphenacyl)-2-oxo-5-phenyl-1H-1,4-benzodiazepin-3-yl]-3-(3-methylphenyl)urea (YM022), was a neutral antagonist; and two compounds, N-(+)-[1-(adamant-1-ylmethyl)-2,4-dioxo-5-phenyl2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-1,5-benzodiazepin-3-yl]-N′-phenylurea (GV150,013X) and ([(N-[methoxy-3 phenyl] N-[N-methyl N-phenyl carbamoylmethyl], carbomoyl-methyl)-3 ureido]-3-phenyl)2-propionic acid (RPR101,048), were inverse agonists. Furthermore, target- and pharmacophore-based docking of ligands followed by molecular dynamic simulation experiments resulted in consistent motion of aromatic residues belonging to a network presumably important for activation, thus providing the first structural explanations for the different pharmacological profiles of tested compounds. This study confirms that several referenced so-called antagonists are in fact partial agonists, and because of this undesired activity, we suggest that newly generated molecules should be preferred to efficiently block CCK2R-related physiological effects. Furthermore, data on the structural basis for the different pharmacological features of CCK2R ligands will serve to further clarify CCK2R mechanism of activation.