Abstract

In response to 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), the type 1 serotonin receptors (5-HT1Rs) preferentially couple to the inhibitory G protein and elicit many physiological and behavioral processes. However, their regulation by intracellular protein kinases has not been fully investigated. In this study, we identified that glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK3) differentially regulates 5-HT1Rs. In receptor-expressing cells and brain slices, activation of both 5-HT1AR and 5-HT1BR reduced forskolin-stimulated cAMP production, but only the effect of 5-HT1BR was abolished by selective GSK3 inhibitors, deletion of GSK3β by RNAi, or overexpression of impaired GSK3β mutants (R96A and K85,86A). A consensus GSK3 phosphorylation sequence was identified between the serine-154 and threonine-158 in the second intracellular loop of 5-HT1BR. Mutation of either serine-154 or threonine-158 to alanine significantly reduced response of 5-HT1BR to 5-HT. Active GSK3β interacted with resting 5-HT1BR to form a protein complex. The interaction was enhanced by receptor activation, abolished by GSK3 inhibitors, and dependent on the phosphorylation state of serine-154. In addition, regulation of 5-HT1BR by GSK3 changed the dynamics of agonist-induced cell surface receptor internalization, in which lack of phosphorylation at Ser154 resulted in sustained reduction of 5-HT1BR at the cell surface. Although the physiological consequences of selective regulation of 5-HT1BR by GSK3 remain to be identified, findings in this study reveal a new function of GSK3 as a protein kinase that is able to selectively regulate G protein-coupled receptors.