The cell is not a bag of water

We have over 800 G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).  We have not found 800 distinct intracellular messengers (such cyclic adenosine monophosphate — aka CAMP).  A single cell can express up to 100 GPCRS — Mol. Pharm. vol. 88 pp. 181 – 187 ’15.  Some of them raise CAMP levels, others decrease it.  CAMP is supposed to diffuse freely within the cell.  If so, different GPCRs which change cellular CAMP levels to the same extent they should produce identical effects. But they don’t.

One example — Isuprel stimulation of beta adrenergic GPCRs increases cardiac contractile force and activates glycogen metabolism.  Prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) GPCR causes the same CAMP increase without this effect.

A recent fascinating paper may explain why [ Cell vol. 185 pp. 1130 – 1142 ’22 ]  The authors had previously done work showing that under basal conditions CAMP is mostly bound to a protein (regulatory protein kinase A subunit — aka PKA RIalpha ) leading to very low concentrations of free CAMP.

So free diffusion occurs only if CAMP levels are elevated well above the number of binding sites for it.

As usual, to get new interesting results, new technology had to be used.  A biosensor for CAMP based on Forster Resonance Energy Transfer aka FRET —  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Förster_resonance_energy_transfer, was added to two different GPCRs — one for the Glucagon Like Peptide 1 (GLP1) and the other for the beta2 adrenergic receptor.

Even better, they fused the biosensor to the GPCRs using rulerlike  spacers each 300 Angstroms (30 nanoMeters) long.  So they could measure CAMP levels at 30 and 60 nanoMeters from the GPCR.  Levels were highest close to the receptor, but even at 30 and 60 nanoMeters away they were higher than the levels in the cytoplasm away from the cell membrane.  So this is pretty good evidence for what the authors call RAINs (Receptor Associated Independent camp Domains — God they love acronyms don’t they?).

Similar localized responses were seen with the beta2 adrenergic receptors, suggesting that RAINs might be a general phenomenon of GPCRs — but a lot more work is needed.

Even more interesting was the fact that there was no crosstalk between the RAINS of GLP1R and the beta2 adrenergic receptor.  Stimulation of one GPCR changed only the RAIN associated with it and didn’t travel to other RAINs

So the cell with its GPCRs resembles a neuron with its synapses on dendritic spines, where processing at each synapse remains fairly local before the neuron cell body integrates all of them.  It’s like Las Vegas — what happens at GPCR1 (synapse1) stays in GPCR1 (synapse1).  Well not quite, but you get the idea.

Cells are not bags of cytoplasm

How Ya Gonna Keep ’em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree) is a song of 100+ years ago when World War I had just ended. In 1920, for the first time America was 50/50 urban/rural. Now it’s 82%.

What does this have to do with cellular biology? A lot. One of the first second messengers to be discovered was cyclic adenosine monophosphate (CAMP). It binds to an enzyme complex called protein kinase A (PKA), activating it, making it phosphorylate all sorts of proteins changing their activity. But PKA doesn’t float free in the cell. We have some 47 genes for proteins (called AKAPs for protein A Kinase Anchoring Protein) which bind PKA and localize it to various places in the cell. CAMP is made by an enzyme called adenyl cyclase of which we have 10 types, each localized to various places in the cell (because most of them are membrane embedded). We also have hundreds of G Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) localized in various parts of the cell (apical, basal, primary cilia, adhesion structures etc. etc.) many of which when activated stimulate (by yet another complicated mechanism) adenyl cyclase to make CAMP.

So the cell tries to keep CAMP when it is formed relatively localized (down on the farm if you will). Why have all these ways of making it if its going to run all over the cell after all.

Actually the existence of localized signaling by CAMP is rather controversial, particularly when you can measure how fast it is moving around. All studies previous to Cell vol. 182 pp. 1379 – 1381, 1519 – 1530 ’20 found free diffusion of CAMP.

This study, found that CAMP (in low concentrations) was essentially immobile, remaining down on the farm where it was formed.

The authors used a fluorescent analog of CAMP which allowed them to use fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy which gives the probability distribution function of an individual molecule occupying a given position in space and time (SpatioTemporal Image correlation Spectroscopy — STICS).

Fascinating as the study is, it is ligh tyears away from physiologic — the fluorescent CAMP analog was not formed by anything resembling a physiologic mechanism (e.g. by adenyl cyclase). A precursor to the fluorescent CAMP was injected into the cell and broken down by ‘intracellular esterases’ to form the fluorescent CAMP analog.

Then the authors constructed a protein made of three parts (1) a phosphodiesterase (PDE) which broke down the fluorescent CAMP analog and (2) another protein — the signaler — which fluoresced when it bound the CAMP analog. The two were connected by (3) a flexible protein linker e.g. the ‘ruler’ of the previous post. The ruler could be made of various lengths.

Then levels of fluorescent CAMP were obtained by injecting it into the cell, or stimulating a receptor.

If the sensor was 100 Angstroms away from the PDE, it never showed signs of CAMP, implying the the PDE was destroying it before it could get to the linker implying that diffusion was quite slow. This was at low concentrations of the fluorescent CAMP analog. At high injection concentrations the CAMP overcame the sites which were binding it in the cell and moved past the signaler.

It was a lot of work but it convincingly (to me) showed that CAMP doesn’t move freely in the cell unless it is of such high concentration that it overcomes the binding sites available to it.

They made another molecule containing (1) protein kinase A (2) a ruler (3) a phophodiesterase. If the kinase and phosphodiesterase were close enough together, CAMP never got to PKA at all.

Another proof that phosphodiesterase enzymes can create a zone where there is no free CAMP (although there is still some bound to proteins).

Hard stuff (to explain) but nonetheless impressive, and shows why we must consider the cell a bunch of tiny principalities jealously guarding their turf like medieval city states.

*****

A molecular ruler

Time to cleanse your mind by leaving the contentious world of social issues and entering the realm of pure thought with some elegant chemistry. 

You are asked to construct a molecular ruler with a persistence length of 150 Angstroms. 

Hint #1: use a protein

Hint #2; use alpha helices

Spoiler alert — nature got there first. 

The ruler was constructed and used in an interesting paper on CAMP nanoDomains (about which more on the next post).

It’s been around since 2011 [ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. vol. 108 pp. 20467 – 20472 ’11 ] and I’m embarrassed to admit I’d never heard of it.

It’s basically a run of 4 negatively charged amino acids (glutamic acid or aspartic acid) followed by a run of 4 positively charged amino acids (lysine, arginine). This is a naturally occurring motif found in a variety of species. 

My initial (incorrect) thought was that this couldn’t work as the 4 positively charged amino acids would bend at the end and bind to the 4 negatively charged ones. This can’t work even if you make the peptide chain planar, as the positive charges would alternate sides on the planar peptide backbone.

Recall that there are 3.5 amino acids/turn of the alpha helix, meaning that between a run of 4 Glutamic acid/Aspartic acids and an adjacent run of 4 lysines/arginines, an ionic bond is certain to form between the side chains (and not between adjacent amino acids on the backbone, but probably one 3 or 4 amino acids away)

Since a complete turn of the alpha helix is only 5.4 Angstroms, a persistence length of 150 means about 28 turns of the helix using 28 * 3.5 = 98 amino acids or about 12 blocks of ++++—- charged amino acids. 

The beauty of the technique is that by starting with an 8 amino acid ++++—- block, you can add length to your ruler in 12 Angstrom increments. This is exactly what Cell vol. 182 pp. 1519 – 1530 ’20 did. But that’s for the next post. 

Do orphan G Protein Coupled Receptors self stimulate?

Self-stimulation is frowned on in the Bible — Genesis 38:8-10, but one important G Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR) may actually do it.  At least 1/3 of the drugs in clinical use manipulate GPCRs, and we have lots of them (at least 826/20,000 protein coding genes according to PNAS 115 p. 12733 ’18).  However only 360 or so are not involved in smell, and in one third of them  we have no idea what the natural ligand for them actually is (Cell vol. 177 p. 1933 ’19).  These are the orphan GPCRs, and they make a juicy target for drug discovery (if only  we knew what they did)

One orphan GPCR goes by the name of GPR52. It is found on neurons carrying the D2 dopamine receptor.  GPR52 binds to G(s) family of G proteins stimulating the production of CAMP (which would antagonize dopamine signaling), enough to stimulate (if not self-stimulate) any neuropharmacologist.

Which brings us to the peculiar behavior of GPR52 as shown by Nature vol. 579 pp. 142 – 147 ’20.  The second extracellular loop (ECL2) folds into what would normally be the binding site for an exogenous ligand (the orthosteric site).  Well, it could be protecting the site from inappropriate ligands.  But it isn’t, as removing or mutating ECL2 decreases the activity of GPR52 (e.g. less CAMP is produced).  Pharmacologists have produced a synthetic GPR52 agonist (called c17).  However it binds to a side pocket, in the 7 transmembrane region of the GCPR.   This is interesting in itself, as no such site is known in any of the other GPCRs studied.

Most GPCRs have some basal (constitutive) activity where they spontaneously couple to their G proteins, but the constitutive activity of GPR52 is quite high, so c17 only slightly increases the rise in CAMP that GPR52 normally produces.

This might be an explanation for other orphan GPCRs — like a hermaphrodite they could be self-fertilizing.

Should you take aspirin after you exercise?

I just got back from a beautiful four and a half mile walk around a reservoir behind my house.  I always take 2 adult aspirin after such things like this.  A recent paper implies that perhaps I should not [ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. vol. 114 pp. 6675 – 6684 ’17 ].  Here’s why.

Muscle has a set of stem cells all its own.  They are called satellite cells.  After injury they proliferate and make new muscle. One of the triggers for this is a prostaglandin known as PGE2 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostaglandin_E2 — clearly a delightful structure for the organic chemist to make.  It binds to a receptor on the satellite cell (called EP4R) following which all sorts of things happen, which will make sense to you if you know some cellular biochemistry.  Activation of EP4R triggers activation of the cyclic AMP (CAMP) phosphoCREB pathway.  This activates Nurr1, a transcription factor which causes cellular proliferation.

Why no aspirin? Because it inhibits cyclo-oxygenase which forms the 5 membered ring of PGE2.

I think you should still aspirin afterwards, as the injury produced in the paper was pretty severe — muscle toxins, cold injury etc. etc. Probably the weekend warriors among you don’t damage your muscles that much.

A few further points about aspirin and the NSAIDs

Now aspirin is an NSAID (NonSteroid AntiInflammatory Drug) — along with a zillion others (advil, anaprox, ansaid, clinoril, daypro, dolobid, feldene, indocin — etc. etc. a whole alphabet’s worth). It is rather different in that it has an acetyl group on the benzene ring.  Could it be an acetylating agent for things like histones and transcription factors, producing far more widespread effects than those attributable to cyclo-oxygenase inhibition.   I’ve looked at the structures of a few of them — some have CH2-COOH moieties in them, which might be metabolized to an acetyl group –doubt.  Naproxen (Anaprox, Naprosyn) does have an acetyl group — but the other 13 structures I looked at do not.

Another possible negative of aspirin after exercise, is the fact that inhibition of platelet cyclo-oxygenase makes it harder for them to stick together and form clots (this is why it is used to prevent heart attack and stroke). So aspirin might result in more extensive micro-hemorrhages in muscle after exercise (if such things exist).