Structural and interaction analysis of glycoprotein VI-binding peptide selected from a phage display library

Glycoprotein VI (GPVI) is a major collagen receptor on the platelet surface that recognizes the glycine-proline-hydroxyproline (GPO) sequence in the collagen molecule and plays a crucial role in thrombus formation. Inhibitors that block the interaction of GPVI with collagen have potential for use as antithrombotic drugs. For low molecular weight drug design for GPVI, it is essential to obtain precise structural and interaction information about GPVI-binding ligands. However, experimentally obtained structural and interaction information of small ligands, such as peptides, in the GPVI-bound state has not been reported. In this study, by screening a phage-displayed peptide library, we discovered a novel peptide ligand (pep-10L; YSDTDWLYFSTS) without any similarities to the sequence of collagen that inhibits GPVI-GPO binding. Systematic Ala scanning in surface plasmon resonance experiments and a saturation transfer difference NMR experiment revealed that Trp(6), Leu(7), Phe(9), and Ser(10) residues in the pep-10L peptide interacted with GPVI. Furthermore, the GPVI-bound conformation of the pep-10L peptide was determined using transferred nuclear Overhauser effect analysis. The obtained structure has revealed that the central part of pep-10L (Asp(5)-Phe(9)) has a helical conformation, the side chains of Trp(6), Leu(7), and Phe(9) form a hydrophobic side in the helix, and the Tyr(8) side chain faces the opposite direction from the hydrophobic side. Computational docking prediction has shown that the hydrophobic side of pep-10L sticks in the hydrophobic groove on the GPVI surface, which corresponds to the putative collagen-related peptide binding groove. These data could enable the structure-guided development of a small molecule GPVI antagonist.