A NanoBRET-Based H<sub>3</sub>R Conformational Biosensor to Study Real-Time H<sub>3</sub> Receptor Pharmacology in Cell Membranes and Living Cells

oleh: Xiaoyuan Ma, Meichun Gao, Henry F. Vischer, Rob Leurs

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-07-01

Deskripsi

Conformational biosensors to monitor the activation state of G protein-coupled receptors are a useful addition to the molecular pharmacology assay toolbox to characterize ligand efficacy at the level of receptor proteins instead of downstream signaling. We recently reported the initial characterization of a NanoBRET-based conformational histamine H<sub>3</sub> receptor (H<sub>3</sub>R) biosensor that allowed the detection of both (partial) agonism and inverse agonism on living cells in a microplate reader assay format upon stimulation with H<sub>3</sub>R ligands. In the current study, we have further characterized this H<sub>3</sub>R biosensor on intact cells by monitoring the effect of consecutive ligand injections in time and evaluating its compatibility with photopharmacological ligands that contain a light-sensitive azobenzene moiety for photo-switching. In addition, we have validated the H<sub>3</sub>R biosensor in membrane preparations and found that observed potency values better correlated with binding affinity values that were measured in radioligand competition binding assays on membranes. Hence, the H<sub>3</sub>R conformational biosensor in membranes might be a ready-to-use, high-throughput alternative for radioligand binding assays that in addition can also detect ligand efficacies with comparable values as the intact cell assay.