Differential Signaling Profiles of MC4R Mutations with Three Different Ligands

oleh: Sarah Paisdzior, Ioanna Maria Dimitriou, Paul Curtis Schöpe, Paolo Annibale, Patrick Scheerer, Heiko Krude, Martin J. Lohse, Heike Biebermann, Peter Kühnen

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2020-02-01

Deskripsi

The melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) is a key player in hypothalamic weight regulation and energy expenditure as part of the leptin&#8722;melanocortin pathway. Mutations in this G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) are the most common cause for monogenetic obesity, which appears to be mediated by changes in the anorectic action of MC4R via G<sub>S</sub>-dependent cyclic adenosine-monophosphate (cAMP) signaling as well as other signaling pathways. To study potential bias in the effects of MC4R mutations between the different signaling pathways, we investigated three major <i>MC4R</i> mutations: a G<sub>S</sub> loss-of-function (S127L) and a G<sub>S</sub> gain-of-function mutant (H158R), as well as the most common European single nucleotide polymorphism (V103I). We tested signaling of all four major G protein families plus extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation and &#946;-arrestin2 recruitment, using the two endogenous agonists, &#945;- and &#946;-melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH), along with a synthetic peptide agonist (NDP-&#945;-MSH). The S127L mutation led to a full loss-of-function in all investigated pathways, whereas V103I and H158R were clearly biased towards the G<sub>q/11</sub> pathway when challenged with the endogenous ligands. These results show that <i>MC4R</i> mutations can cause vastly different changes in the various MC4R signaling pathways and highlight the importance of a comprehensive characterization of receptor mutations.