Human Transient Receptor Potential Ankyrin 1 Channel: Structure, Function, and Physiology.

The transient receptor potential ion channel TRPA1 is a Ca2+-permeable nonselective cation channel widely expressed in sensory neurons, but also in many nonneuronal tissues typically possessing barrier functions, such as the skin, joint synoviocytes, cornea, and the respiratory and intestinal tracts. Here, the primary role of TRPA1 is to detect potential danger stimuli that may threaten the tissue homeostasis and the health of the organism. The ability to directly recognize signals of different modalities, including chemical irritants, extreme temperatures, or osmotic changes resides in the characteristic properties of the ion channel protein complex. Recent advances in cryo-electron microscopy have provided an important framework for understanding the molecular basis of TRPA1 function and have suggested novel directions in the search for its pharmacological regulation. This chapter summarizes the current knowledge of human TRPA1 from a structural and functional perspective and discusses the complex allosteric mechanisms of activation and modulation that play important roles under physiological or pathophysiological conditions. In this context, major challenges for future research on TRPA1 are outlined.

Cannabinoid non-cannabidiol site modulation of TRPV2 structure and function.

TRPV2 is a ligand-operated temperature sensor with poorly defined pharmacology. Here, we combine calcium imaging and patch-clamp electrophysiology with cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to explore how TRPV2 activity is modulated by the phytocannabinoid Δ9-tetrahydrocannabiorcol (C16) and by probenecid. C16 and probenecid act in concert to stimulate TRPV2 responses including histamine release from rat and human mast cells. Each ligand causes distinct conformational changes in TRPV2 as revealed by cryo-EM. Although the binding for probenecid remains elusive, C16 associates within the vanilloid pocket. As such, the C16 binding location is distinct from that of cannabidiol, partially overlapping with the binding site of the TRPV2 inhibitor piperlongumine. Taken together, we discover a new cannabinoid binding site in TRPV2 that is under the influence of allosteric control by probenecid. This molecular insight into ligand modulation enhances our understanding of TRPV2 in normal and pathophysiology.

Activity dependent inhibition of TRPC1/4/5 channels by duloxetine involves voltage sensor-like domain.

Transient receptor potential canonical 5 (TRPC5) is a polymodal, calcium-permeable, nonselective ion channel that is expressed in the brain and 75 % of human sensory neurons. Its pharmacological or genetic inhibition leads to the relief of neuropathic and inflammatory pain. The clinically approved drug duloxetine is superior to other serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors at managing painful neuropathies, but it is not known why. Here we ask whether the TRPC5 receptor is modulated by duloxetine and may contribute to its analgesic effect. Electrophysiological measurements of heterologously expressed human TRPC5 in HEK293T cells were performed to evaluate the effect of duloxetine. The interaction site was identified by molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations in combination with point mutagenesis. We found that duloxetine inhibits TRPC5 in a concentration-dependent manner with a high potency (IC50 = 0.54 ± 0.03 µM). Our data suggest that duloxetine binds into a voltage sensor-like domain. For the interaction, Glu418 exhibited particular importance due to putative hydrogen bond formation. Duloxetine effectively inhibits TRPC5 currents induced by cooling, voltage, direct agonists and by the stimulation of the PLC pathway. The finding that this TRPC5 inhibitor is widely used and well tolerated provides a scaffold for new pain treatment strategies.

Cellular context determines primary characteristics of human TRPC5 as a cold-activated channel.

The human transient receptor potential canonical 5 (TRPC5) is a calcium-permeable, nonselective cation channel expressed in the central and peripheral nervous system and also in other tissues such as the kidney, synovium, and odontoblasts. TRPC5 has been recently confirmed to play a key role in spontaneous, inflammatory mechanical, and cold pain. Although TRPC5 activation is known to be cold sensitive, it is unclear whether this property is intrinsic to the channel protein and whether or to what extent it may be determined by the cellular environment. In this study, we explored the cold sensitivity of human TRPC5 at the single-channel level using transiently transfected HEK293T cells. Upon decreasing the temperature, the channel demonstrated prolonged mean open dwell times and a robust increase in the open probability (Po ), whereas the amplitude of unitary currents decreased ~1.5-fold per 10°C of temperature difference. In the absence of any agonists, the temperature dependence of Po was sigmoidal, with a steep slope within the temperature range of 16°C-11°C, and exhibited saturation below 8-5°C. Thermodynamic analysis revealed significant changes in enthalpy and entropy, suggesting that substantial conformational changes accompany cold-induced gating. The mutant channel T970A, in which the regulation downstream of G-protein coupled receptor signaling was abrogated, exhibited higher basal activity at room temperature and a less steep temperature response profile, with an apparent threshold below 22°C. An even more pronounced decrease in the activation threshold was observed in a mutant that disrupted the electrostatic interaction of TRPC5 with the endoplasmic reticulum calcium sensor stromal interaction molecule 1. Thus, TRPC5 exhibits features of an intrinsically cold-gated channel; its sensitivity to cold tightly depends on the phosphorylation status of the protein and intracellular calcium homeostasis.

Phospho-Mimetic Mutation at Ser602 Inactivates Human TRPA1 Channel.

The Transient Receptor Potential Ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) channel is an integrative molecular sensor for detecting environmental irritant compounds, endogenous proalgesic and inflammatory agents, pressure, and temperature. Different post-translational modifications participate in the discrimination of the essential functions of TRPA1 in its physiological environment, but the underlying structural bases are poorly understood. Here, we explored the role of the cytosolic N-terminal residue Ser602 located near a functionally important allosteric coupling domain as a potential target of phosphorylation. The phosphomimetic mutation S602D completely abrogated channel activation, whereas the phosphonull mutations S602G and S602N produced a fully functional channel. Using mutagenesis, electrophysiology, and molecular simulations, we investigated the possible structural impact of a modification (mutation or phosphorylation) of Ser602 and found that this residue represents an important regulatory site through which the intracellular signaling cascades may act to reversibly restrict or "dampen" the conformational space of the TRPA1 channel and promote its transitions to the closed state.

Proximal C-Terminus Serves as a Signaling Hub for TRPA1 Channel Regulation via Its Interacting Molecules and Supramolecular Complexes.

Our understanding of the general principles of the polymodal regulation of transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels has grown impressively in recent years as a result of intense efforts in protein structure determination by cryo-electron microscopy. In particular, the high-resolution structures of various TRP channels captured in different conformations, a number of them determined in a membrane mimetic environment, have yielded valuable insights into their architecture, gating properties and the sites of their interactions with annular and regulatory lipids. The correct repertoire of these channels is, however, organized by supramolecular complexes that involve the localization of signaling proteins to sites of action, ensuring the specificity and speed of signal transduction events. As such, TRP ankyrin 1 (TRPA1), a major player involved in various pain conditions, localizes into cholesterol-rich sensory membrane microdomains, physically interacts with calmodulin, associates with the scaffolding A-kinase anchoring protein (AKAP) and forms functional complexes with the related TRPV1 channel. This perspective will contextualize the recent biochemical and functional studies with emerging structural data with the aim of enabling a more thorough interpretation of the results, which may ultimately help to understand the roles of TRPA1 under various physiological and pathophysiological pain conditions. We demonstrate that an alteration to the putative lipid-binding site containing a residue polymorphism associated with human asthma affects the cold sensitivity of TRPA1. Moreover, we present evidence that TRPA1 can interact with AKAP to prime the channel for opening. The structural bases underlying these interactions remain unclear and are definitely worth the attention of future studies.

Human and Mouse TRPA1 Are Heat and Cold Sensors Differentially Tuned by Voltage.

Transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 channel (TRPA1) serves as a key sensor for reactive electrophilic compounds across all species. Its sensitivity to temperature, however, differs among species, a variability that has been attributed to an evolutionary divergence. Mouse TRPA1 was implicated in noxious cold detection but was later also identified as one of the prime noxious heat sensors. Moreover, human TRPA1, originally considered to be temperature-insensitive, turned out to act as an intrinsic bidirectional thermosensor that is capable of sensing both cold and heat. Using electrophysiology and modeling, we compare the properties of human and mouse TRPA1, and we demonstrate that both orthologues are activated by heat, and their kinetically distinct components of voltage-dependent gating are differentially modulated by heat and cold. Furthermore, we show that both orthologues can be strongly activated by cold after the concurrent application of voltage and heat. We propose an allosteric mechanism that could account for the variability in TRPA1 temperature responsiveness.

Intracellular cavity of sensor domain controls allosteric gating of TRPA1 channel.

Transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) is a temperature-sensitive ion channel activated by various pungent and irritant compounds that can produce pain in humans. Its activation involves an allosteric mechanism whereby electrophilic agonists evoke interactions within cytosolic domains and open the channel pore through an integrated nexus formed by intracellular membrane proximal regions that are densely packed beneath the lower segment of the S1-S4 sensor domain. Studies indicate that this part of the channel may contain residues that form a water-accessible cavity that undergoes changes in solvation during channel gating. We identified conserved polar residues facing the putative lower crevice of the sensor domain that were crucial determinants of the electrophilic, voltage, and calcium sensitivity of the TRPA1 channel. This part of the sensor may also comprise a domain capable of binding to membrane phosphoinositides through which gating of the channel is regulated in a state-dependent manner.

The First Extracellular Linker Is Important for Several Aspects of the Gating Mechanism of Human TRPA1 Channel.

Transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) is an excitatory ion channel involved in pain, inflammation and itching. This channel gates in response to many irritant and proalgesic agents, and can be modulated by calcium and depolarizing voltage. While the closed-state structure of TRPA1 has been recently resolved, also having its open state is essential for understanding how this channel works. Here we use molecular dynamics simulations combined with electrophysiological measurements and systematic mutagenesis to predict and explore the conformational changes coupled to the expansion of the presumptive channel's lower gate. We show that, upon opening, the upper part of the sensor module approaches the pore domain of an adjacent subunit and the conformational dynamics of the first extracellular flexible loop may govern the voltage-dependence of multimodal gating, thereby serving to stabilize the open state of the channel. These results are generally important in understanding the structure and function of TRPA1 and offer new insights into the gating mechanism of TRPA1 and related channels.

Structural modeling and patch-clamp analysis of pain-related mutation TRPA1-N855S reveal inter-subunit salt bridges stabilizing the channel open state.

The ankyrin transient receptor potential channel TRPA1 is a polymodal sensor for noxious stimuli, and hence a promising target for treating chronic pain. This tetrameric six-transmembrane segment (S1-S6) channel can be activated by various pungent chemicals, such as allyl isothiocyanate or cinnamaldehyde, but also by intracellular Ca(2+) or depolarizing voltages. Within the S4-S5 linker of human TRPA1, a gain-of-function mutation, N855S, was recently found to underlie familial episodic pain syndrome, manifested by bouts of severe upper body pain, triggered by physical stress, fasting, or cold. To clarify the structural basis for this channelopathy, we derive a structural model of TRPA1 by combining homology modeling, molecular dynamics simulations, point mutagenesis and electrophysiology. In the vicinity of N855, the model reveals inter-subunit salt bridges between E854 and K868. Using the heterologous expression of recombinant wild-type and mutant TRPA1 channels in HEK293T cells, we indeed found that the charge-reversal mutants E854R and K868E exhibited dramatically reduced responses to chemical and voltage stimuli, whereas the charge-swapping mutation E854R/K868E substantially rescued their functionalities. Moreover, mutation analysis of highly conserved charged residues within the S4-S5 region revealed a gain-of-function phenotype for R852E with an increased basal channel activity, a loss of Ca(2+)-induced potentiation and an accelerated Ca(2+)-dependent inactivation. Based on the model and on a comparison with the recently revealed atomic-level structure of the related channel TRPV1, we propose that inter-subunit salt bridges between adjacent S4-S5 regions are crucial for stabilizing the conformations associated with chemically and voltage-induced gating of the TRPA1 ion channel.

The development and in vivo evaluation of a colon drug delivery system using human volunteers.

The aim of this study was to develop a multiple-unit dosage system that released model drug into the colon, and also to evaluate the efficiency of the dosage form in human volunteers. The developed system combines pH-, time- and biodegradable polymer-based mechanisms for drug targeting to the colon. Pellet cores containing caffeine as model drug and chitosan and microcrystalline cellulose as excipients were prepared by the extrusion/spheronization method. The prepared pellets were film coated with a pH-dependent polymer, Eudragit FS 30 D. The coating total weight gain was 28.83% (w/w). Thanks to the application of an outer enteric film and the multiple unit design of the dosage form, the variability in gastric emptying was overcome, and a colon-specific targeting relied on the reproducibility of a small intestinal transit time, which was reported to be 3 ± 1 hours. A biodegradable polymer in the pellet core, chitosan, ensured the site-specific release of the model drug due to its solubility at the lower pH of the colonic region and by its biodegradability from the bacteria present. The efficiency of the system was confirmed by the in vivo testing of human saliva. The time of the first appearance of caffeine into the saliva, T(lag), was used as a parameter to estimate the disintegration time of the pellets into the gastrointestinal tract. The caffeine appeared in the saliva within 6.95 ± 1.12 hours (T(lag)) in 9 volunteers. A comparison of the reported colon arrival times indicates that the developed system is applicable to colonic drug delivery.