RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Identification of a Novel Allosteric Binding Site in the CXCR2 Chemokine Receptor JF Molecular Pharmacology JO Mol Pharmacol FD American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics SP mol.111.073825 DO 10.1124/mol.111.073825 A1 Petra de Kruijf A1 Herman D. Lim A1 Luc Roumen A1 Veronique A. Renjaan A1 Jiuqiao Zhao A1 Maria L. Webb A1 Douglas A. Auld A1 Jac C.H.M. Wijkmans A1 Guido J.R. Zaman A1 Martine J. Smit A1 Chris de Graaf A1 Rob Leurs YR 2011 UL http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/early/2011/09/23/mol.111.073825.abstract AB We have previously shown that different chemical classes of small molecule antagonists of the human chemokine CXCR2 receptor interact with distinct binding sites of the receptor (de Kruijf et al., 2009). While an intracellular binding site for diarylurea CXCR2 antagonists, like SB265610, and thiazolopyrimidine compounds was recently mapped by mutagenesis studies (Nicholls et al., 2008; Salchow et al., 2010), we now report on an imidazolylpyrimidine antagonist binding pocket in the transmembrane domain of CXCR2. Using different CXCR2 orthologs, chimeric proteins, site-directed mutagenesis and in silico modeling, we have elucidated the binding mode of this antagonist. Our in silico guided mutagenesis studies indicate that the ligand binding cavity for imidazolylpyrimidine compounds in CXCR2 is located between transmembrane (TM) helices 3 (F1303.36), 5 (S2175.44 , F2205.47), and 6 (N2686.52, L2716.55) and suggest that these antagonists enter CXCR2 via the TM5-TM6 interface. Interestingly, the same interface is postulated as the ligand entry channel in the opsin receptor (Park et al., 2008) and is occupied by lipid molecules in the recently solved crystal structure of the CXCR4 chemokine receptor (Wu et al., 2010), suggesting a general ligand entrance mechanism for nonpolar ligands to G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The identification of a novel allosteric binding cavity in the TM domain of CXCR2, in addition to the previously identified intracellular binding site, shows the diversity in ligand recognition mechanisms by this receptor and offers new opportunities for the structure-based design of small allosteric modulators of CXCR2 in the future.