A salt bridge between Arg-20 on parathyroid hormone (PTH) and Asp-137 on the PTH1 receptor is essential for full affinity

Abstract

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) acts via the receptor PTH1 and plays an important role in calcium homeostasis. PTH's interaction with the N-terminal domain of PTH1 is mediated in part by Arg-20 on the peptide which forms a number of interactions with the receptor: a charge-charge interaction with Asp-137; hydrogen bonds with the backbone of Asp-29 and Met-32; and hydrophobic interactions with Met-32 and Gln-37. The aim of this work was to establish the importance of the charge-charge interaction through the combined use of modified peptide ligands, site-directed mutations of the receptor, and pharmacological assays. The substitution of Arg-20 with norleucine resulted in a 50-fold reduction in potency at PTH1 and Asp-137-Glu while, in contrast, both Asp-137-Asn and Asp-137-Ala receptors were largely insensitive to this ligand modification. The effect of this removal of the positive charge as position 20 could be partially rescued at PTH1 and Asp-137-Glu, but not Asp-137-Asn and Asp-137-Ala, through a substitution of peptide position 20 with ornithine. The latter two receptors, which have no negative charge at position 137, displayed potency for PTH that was reduced by 40- and 117-fold, respectively. These data demonstrate that a negative charge at residue-137 is important for interacting with ligands containing a positive charge at residue-20, and that the Arg-20 interaction with Asp-137, observed in the crystal structure of the isolated N-terminal domain of PTH1, is likely to be present in the full length receptor where it provides an important affinity- and potency-generating interaction through a salt bridge.

Keywords: Agonist; GPCR; Osteoporosis; PTH; Parathyroid hormone; Receptor.