Establishment of a chimeric reporting system for the universal detection and high-throughput screening of G protein-coupled receptors.

ABSTRACT

G proteins, further divided into four subfamilies (G(s), G(q), G(12) and G(i)) based on their Galpha subunits, are the primary components activated by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Current GPCR assays are limited to the evaluation of selective Galpha signaling and do not allow comprehensive screening for orphan GPCRs without a known coupled Galpha. Therefore, our aim was to design a chimeric reporting system that covers responses from all Galpha subfamilies simultaneously. Because G(s) activates cAMP response element (CRE)-driven genes whereas G(q) and G(12) activate serum response element (SRE)-driven genes, we therefore incorporated 2x CRE and 5x SRE (2CRE5SRE) into a promoter for driving luciferase expression. To further report G(i) signals, a 2CRE5SRE-driven chimeric G(qi), in which the C-terminus of G(q) is replaced by that of G(i), was integrated to switch the responses of G(i)-coupled GPCRs to the G(q) signaling. The novel reporter system showed a strong signal amplification when activated by neuromedin U receptor 1 (mainly activates G(q)), neuromedin U receptor 2 (mainly activates G(i)) or luteinizing hormone receptor (mainly through the G(s) and G(q) pathways). In addition, 293T cells stably carrying our reporter construct showed a similar sensitivity to the radioactive cAMP assay when revealing the constitutive signal from gain-of-function mutants of luteinizing hormone receptor. To our knowledge, this is the first reporting system capable of covering the G(s), G(q), G(12) and G(i) signals and revealing the phenomena of constitutively active GPCRs. Such a universal platform will benefit future high-throughput screening and drug designs for any GPCR.