Cholesterol Dependent Activity of the Adenosine A_2A Receptor Is Modulated via the Cholesterol Consensus Motif

Membrane cholesterol dysregulation has been shown to alter the activity of the adenosine A_2A receptor (A_2AR), a G protein-coupled receptor, thereby implicating cholesterol levels in diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. A limited number of A_2AR crystal structures show the receptor interacting with cholesterol, as such molecular simulations are often used to predict cholesterol interaction sites.

Here, we use experimental methods to determine whether a specific interaction between amino acid side chains in the cholesterol consensus motif (CCM) of full length, wild-type human A_2AR, and cholesterol modulates activity of the receptor by testing the effects of mutational changes on functional consequences, including ligand binding, G protein coupling, and downstream activation of cyclic AMP.

Our data, taken with previously published studies, support a model of receptor state-dependent binding between cholesterol and the CCM, whereby cholesterol facilitates both G protein coupling and downstream signaling of A_2AR.