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Updated: Jun 6, 2025

Screening Peptides that Activate MRGPRX2 using Engineered HEK Cells
Published on: November 6, 2021
High-affinity agonists reveal recognition motifs for the MRGPRD GPCR
Chunyu Wang1, Yongfeng Liu2, Marion Lanier3
1Key Laboratory of Immune Response and Immunotherapy, Center for Advanced Interdisciplinary Science and Biomedicine of IHM, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230001, China; Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; School of Life Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230001, China; Insitute of Health and Medicine, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, China.
Researchers discovered potent new agonists for the understudied human MRGPRD protein, crucial for sensing pain and itch. These findings, including structural insights, pave the way for better understanding and drug design for this receptor.
Area of Science:
- Pharmacology
- Structural Biology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- The Mas-related G protein-coupled receptors (MRGPRs) family, including MRGPRD, plays a role in pain, itch, and inflammation.
- MRGPRD is understudied, with limited known agonists like β-alanine, hindering functional research due to low affinity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify novel, high-affinity agonists for the human MRGPRD receptor.
- To elucidate the structural basis of MRGPRD activation by these new agonists.
Main Methods:
- Discovery and characterization of novel MRGPRD agonists (EP-2825 and EP-3945).
- Determination of the crystal structures of MRGPRD-Gq complexes with EP-2825 and EP-3945.
Main Results:
- Identified EP-2825 and EP-3945 as MRGPRD agonists approximately 100-fold more potent than β-alanine.
- Revealed distinct agonist binding modes within the MRGPRD orthosteric pocket.
- Demonstrated significant conformational plasticity of the MRGPRD orthosteric pocket.
Conclusions:
- The discovery of potent MRGPRD agonists provides crucial tools for further functional studies.
- Structural insights into distinct binding modes facilitate structure-based drug design for MRGPRD-targeted therapeutics.
- These findings advance the understanding of a key receptor involved in pain and inflammatory signaling.
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