Published in

Springer Nature [academic journals on nature.com], Cell Discovery, 1(8), 2022

DOI: 10.1038/s41421-022-00403-4

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Molecular insights into ligand recognition and activation of chemokine receptors CCR2 and CCR3

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

AbstractChemokine receptors are a family of G-protein-coupled receptors with key roles in leukocyte migration and inflammatory responses. Here, we present cryo-electron microscopy structures of two human CC chemokine receptor–G-protein complexes: CCR2 bound to its endogenous ligand CCL2, and CCR3 in the apo state. The structure of the CCL2–CCR2–G-protein complex reveals that CCL2 inserts deeply into the extracellular half of the transmembrane domain, and forms substantial interactions with the receptor through the most N-terminal glutamine. Extensive hydrophobic and polar interactions are present between both two chemokine receptors and the Gα-protein, contributing to the constitutive activity of these receptors. Notably, complemented with functional experiments, the interactions around intracellular loop 2 of the receptors are found to be conserved and play a more critical role in G-protein activation than those around intracellular loop 3. Together, our findings provide structural insights into chemokine recognition and receptor activation, shedding lights on drug design targeting chemokine receptors.