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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Studying the Stoichiometry of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor in Intact Cells using Correlative Microscopy
Published on: September 11, 2015
The structural basis for the specificity of epidermal growth factor and heregulin binding
E G Barbacci1, B C Guarino, J G Stroh
1Pfizer Central Research, Groton, Connecticut 06340, USA.
Abstract:
Heregulin is a ligand for the erbB3 and erbB4 receptors, with a region of high homology to epidermal growth factor (EGF). Despite this homology, these ligands bind to their corresponding receptors with great specificity. We report here the synthesis of heregulin beta 177-241 and show that a region consisting of amino acids 177-226 is sufficient both for binding and stimulation of receptor phosphorylation. Studies of chimeric EGF/heregulin peptides revealed that amino acids 177-181 of heregulin provide the specificity for binding to the heregulin receptor. The substitution of amino acids 177-181 of heregulin for the N terminus of EGF produced a unique bifunctional agonist that binds with high affinity to both the EGF receptor and the heregulin receptor.
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