Veli-Pekka Jaakola

Structure of complement factor H carboxyl-terminus reveals molecular basis of atypical haemolytic uremic syndrome.

Factor H (FH) is the key regulator of the alternative pathway of complement. The carboxyl‐terminal domains 19–20 of FH interact with the major opsonin C3b, glycosaminoglycans, and endothelial cells. Mutations within this area are associated with atypical haemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), a disease characterized by damage to endothelial cells, erythrocytes, and kidney glomeruli. The structure of recombinant FH19–20, solved at 1.8 Å by X‐ray crystallography, reveals that the short consensus repeat domain 20 contains, unusually, a short α‐helix, and a patch of basic residues at its base. Most aHUS‐associated mutations either destabilize the structure or cluster in a unique region on the surface of FH20. This region is close to, but distinct from, the primary heparin‐binding patch of basic residues. By mutating five residues in this region, we show that it is involved, not in heparin, but in C3b binding. Therefore, the majority of the aHUS‐associated mutations on the surface of FH19–20 interfere with the interaction between FH and C3b. This obviously leads to impaired control of complement attack on plasma‐exposed cell surfaces in aHUS.

Reindeer beta-lactoglobulin crystal structure with pseudo-body-centred noncrystallographic symmetry.

Reindeer beta-lactoglobulin (betaLG) belongs to the lipocalin superfamily. Its DNA and protein sequences have been determined and showed that it had nine residue changes from bovine betaLG. Reindeer betaLG, the structure of which was finally determined at 2.1 A resolution in space group P1, crystallized in a unit cell that is both P2-like and P2(1)-like owing to the presence of an almost perfect (but noncrystallographic) body-centring vector. The non-body-centred data could only be observed using a very bright synchrotron beam and a novel refinement strategy was adopted to enable us to use the weak h + k + l = 2n + 1 reflections.

Downstream coding region determinants of bacterio-opsin, muscarinic acetylcholine receptor and adrenergic receptor expression in Halobacterium salinarum

The aim of this work is to develop a prokaryotic system capable of expressing membrane-bound receptors in quantities suitable for biochemical and biophysical studies. Our strategy exploits the endogenous high-level expression of the membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin (BR) in the Archaeon Halobacterium salinarum. We attempted to express the human muscarinic acetylcholine (M(1)) and adrenergic (a2b) receptors by fusing the coding region of the m1 and a2b genes to nucleotide sequences known to direct bacterio-opsin (bop) gene transcription. The fusions included downstream modifications to produce non-native carboxyl-terminal amino acids useful for protein identification and purification. bop mRNA and BR accumulation were found to be tightly coupled and the carboxyl-terminal coding region modifications perturbed both. m1 and a2b mRNA levels were low, and accumulation was sensitive to both the extent of the bop gene fusion and the specific carboxyl-terminal coding sequence modifications included. Functional a2b adrenergic receptor expression was observed to be dependent on the downstream coding region. This work demonstrates that a critical determinant of expression resides in the downstream coding region of the wild-type bop gene and manipulation of the downstream coding region of heterologous genes may affect their potential for expression in H. salinarum.

Development of a scintiplate assay for recombinant human α2B-adrenergic receptor

A high-throughput solid-phase platform for ligand-binding assays using microtiter plates (Scintiplates) has been developed using the scintillation proximity assay principle. The system has been developed using human alpha(2B)-adrenergic receptor (alpha(2B)-AR) expressed from Semliki Forest virus vectors in CHO cells. Alpha(2B)-AR bind natural (adrenaline and noradrenaline) and synthetic ligands with different affinities to mediate a variety of physiological and pharmacological responses. Antagonist radioligands were used for the binding experiments, and the values obtained for the binding constants with the Scintiplate system are in good agreement with those obtained by the traditional filter-binding assay system. The Scintiplate assay offers the advantages of a high-throughput format over the filter-binding assay and is amenable for screening many compounds rapidly for generation of leads.

G-protein-coupled receptor domain overexpression in Halobacterium salinarum: Long-range transmembrane interactions in heptahelical membrane proteins

The aminergic α2b‐adrenergic receptor (α2b‐AR) third intracellular loop (α2b‐AR 3i) mediates receptor subcellular compartmentalization and signal transduction processes via ligand‐dependent interaction with Gi‐ and Go‐ proteins. To understand the structural origins of these processes we engineered several lengths of α2b‐AR 3i into the third intracellular loop of the proton pump bacteriorhodopsin (bR) and produced the fusion proteins in quantities suitable for physical studies. The fusion proteins were expressed in the Archaeon Halobacterium salinarum and purified. A highly expressed fusion protein was crystallized from bicelles and diffracted to low resolution on an in‐house diffractometer. The bR‐α2b‐AR 3i203–292 protein possessed a photocycle slightly perturbed from that of the wild‐type bR. The first half of the fusion protein photocycle, correlated with proton release, is accelerated by a factor of 3, whereas the second half, correlated with proton uptake, is slightly slower than wild‐type bR. In addition, there is a large decrease in the pKa, (from 9.6 to 8.3) of the terminal proton release group in the unphotolyzed state of bR‐α2b‐AR 3i as deduced from the pH‐dependence of the M‐formation. Perturbation of a cytoplasmic loop has thus resulted in the perturbation of proton release at the extracellular surface. The current work indicates that long‐range and highly coupled intramolecular interactions exist that are capable of “transducing” structural perturbations (e.g., signals) across the cellular membrane. This gene fusion approach may have general applicability for physical studies of G‐protein‐coupled receptor domains in the context of the bR structural scaffold. Proteins 2005.

Production and purification of recombinant human α2C2 adrenergic receptor using Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The objective is to generate milligram quantities of recombinant human α2C2 adrenergic receptor for X-ray crystallographic studies. It has been cloned in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the production level is at best about 13 pmol/mg of membrane protein, as estimated by radio-ligand binding assay. The receptor is solubilized with sucrose monolaurate followed by immunoaffinity purification and reconstitution into phospholipid vesicles. The efficiency of solubilization and immuno-purification are 60% and 91%, respectively.

Defining thermostability of membrane proteins by western blotting.

Membrane proteins are relatively challenging targets for structural and other biophysical studies. Insufficient expression in various expression systems, inherent flexibility, and instability in the detergents that are required for membrane extraction are the main reasons for this limited success. Therefore, identification of suitable conditions and membrane protein variants that can help stabilize functional protein for extended periods of time is critical for structural studies. Here, we describe a western blot-based assay that simplifies identification of thermostabilizing conditions for membrane proteins. We show successful testing of a variety of parameters such as additive lipids, ligands and detergents.

Baculovirus-mediated expression of GPCRs in insect cells.

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a large family of seven transmembrane proteins that influence a considerable number of cellular events. For this reason, they are one of the most studied receptor types for their pharmacological and structural properties. Solving the structure of several GPCR receptor types has been possible using almost all expression systems, including Escherichia coli, yeast, mammalian, and insect cells. So far, however, most of the GPCR structures solved have been done using the baculovirus insect cell expression system. The reason for this is mainly due to cost-effectiveness, posttranslational modification efficiency, and overall effortless maintenance. The system has evolved so much that variables starting from vector type, purification tags, cell line, and growth conditions can be varied and optimized countless ways to suit the needs of new constructs. Here, we present the array of techniques that enable the rapid and efficient optimization of expression steps for maximal protein quality and quantity, including our emendations.

Intracellularly Truncated Human α2B-Adrenoceptors: Stable and Functional GPCRs for Structural Studies

All three α2-adrenoceptor subtypes have a long third intracellular loop (3i), which is conserved by overall size and charge-hydrophobic properties but not by amino acid sequence similarity. These properties must be relevant for function and structure, because they have been preserved during hundreds of millions of years of evolution. The contribution of different loop portions to agonist/antagonist binding properties and G protein coupling of the human α2B-adrenoceptor (α2B-AR) was investigated with a series of 3i truncated constructs (Δ 3i). We used a variety of agonists/antagonists in competition binding assays. We stimulated α2B-AR Δ3i with various agonists and measured [35S]GTPγS binding in isolated cell membranes with or without antagonist inhibition. We also evaluated the ability of oligopeptides, analogous to the amino and carboxyl terminal parts of 3i, to promote G protein activation, monitored with the [35S]GTPγS assay. Our results reveal that the carboxyl end residues of 3i, R360(6.24) to V372(6.36), are important for Gi/Go protein activation. Deletions in regions from G206(5.72) to R245(5.110) altered the binding of some α2B-AR agonists, indicating that agonist binding is dependent on the conformation of the 3i domain, possibly through the involvement of G protein interactions. The truncated receptor constructs may be more stable on purification and thus be useful for structural characterization of α2B-AR.