TY - JOUR T1 - Structural Motifs of Importance for the Constitutive Activity of the Orphan 7TM Receptor EBI2: Analysis of Receptor Activation in the Absence of an Agonist JF - Molecular Pharmacology JO - Mol Pharmacol SP - 1008 LP - 1021 DO - 10.1124/mol.108.049676 VL - 74 IS - 4 AU - Tau Benned-Jensen AU - Mette M. Rosenkilde Y1 - 2008/10/01 UR - http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/74/4/1008.abstract N2 - The Epstein-Barr induced receptor 2 (EBI2) is a lymphocyte-expressed orphan seven transmembrane-spanning (7TM) receptor that signals constitutively through Gαi, as shown, for instance by guanosine 5′-O-(3-thio)triphosphate incorporation. Two regions of importance for the constitutive activity were identified by a systematic mutational analysis of 29 residues in EBI2. The cAMP response element-binding protein transcription factor was used as a measure of receptor activity and was correlated to the receptor surface expression. PheVI:13 (Phe257), and the neighboring CysVI:12 (Cys256), in the conserved CW/FxP motif in TM 6, acted as negative regulators as Ala substitutions at these positions increased the constitutive activity 5.7- and 2.3-fold, respectively, compared with EBI2 wild type (wt). In contrast, ArgII:20 (Arg87) in TM-2 acted as a positive regulator, as substitution to Ala, but not to Lys, decreased the constitutive activity more than 7-fold compared with wt EBI2. IleIII:03 (Ile106) is located only 4 Å from ArgII:20, and a favorable electrostatic interaction with ArgII:20 was created by introduction of Glu in III:03, given that the activity increased to 4.4-fold of that wt EBI2. It is noteworthy that swapping these charges by introduction of Glu in II:20 and Arg in III:03 resulted in a 2.7-fold increase compared with wt EBI2, thereby rescuing the two signaling-deficient single mutations, which exhibited a 3.8- to 4.5-fold decrease in constitutive activity. The uncovering of these molecular mechanisms for EBI2 activation is important from a drug development point of view, in that it may facilitate the rational design and development of small-molecule inverse agonists against EBI2 of putative importance as antiviral- or immune modulatory therapy. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics ER -