Quantification of intact and truncated stromal cell-derived factor-1α in circulation by immunoaffinity enrichment and tandem mass spectrometry.

Stromal cell-derived factor 1α (SDF-1α) or CXCL12 is a small pro-inflammatory chemoattractant cytokine and a substrate of dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV). Proteolytic cleavage by DPP-IV inactivates SDF-1α and attenuates its interaction with CXCR4, its cell surface receptor. To enable investigation of suppression of such inactivation with pharmacologic inhibition of DPP-IV, we developed quantitative mass spectrometric methods that differentiate intact SDF-1α from its inactive form. Using top-down strategy in quantification, we demonstrated the unique advantage of keeping SDF-1α's two disulfide bridges intact in the analysis. To achieve the optimal sensitivity required for quantification of intact and truncated SDF-1α at endogenous levels in blood, we coupled nano-flow tandem mass spectrometry with antibody-based affinity enrichment. The assay has a quantitative range of 20 pmol/L to 20 nmol/L in human plasma as well as in rhesus monkey plasma. With only slight modification, the same assay can be used to quantify SDF-1α in mice. Using two in vivo animal studies as examples, we demonstrated that it was critical to differentiate intact SDF-1α from its truncated form in the analysis of biomarkers for pharmacologic inhibition of DPP-IV activity. These novel methods enable translational research on suppression of SDF-1 inactivation with DPP-IV inhibition and can be applied to relevant clinical samples in the future to yield new insights on change of SDF-1α levels in disease settings and in response to therapeutic interventions.

Synthesis and cannabinoid-1 receptor binding affinity of conformationally constrained analogs of taranabant.

The design, synthesis, and binding activity of ring constrained analogs of the acyclic cannabinoid-1 receptor (CB1R) inverse agonist taranabant 1 are described. The initial inspiration for these taranabant derivatives was its conformation 1a, determined by (1)H NMR, X-ray, and molecular modeling. The constrained analogs were all much less potent than their acyclic parent structure. The results obtained are discussed in the context of a predicted binding of 1 to a homology model of CB1R.

Molecular basis of the pharmacological difference between rat and human bombesin receptor subtype-3 (BRS-3).

We cloned the gene and cDNA for rat bombesin receptor subtype-3 (BRS-3) and characterized its mRNA expression pattern and pharmacological properties. Despite the high degree of sequence similarity (80% identical), rat and human BRS-3 differ markedly in their pharmacological properties. Although the natural ligand for BRS-3 is still unknown, a synthetic peptide, dY-Q-W-A-V-(beta-A)-H-F-Nle-amide (dY-bombesin), activates human BRS-3 with an EC(50) of 1.2 nM. In contrast, dY-bombesin had a very poor potency for rat BRS-3 (EC(50) = 2 microM). To understand the molecular basis of this pharmacological difference, we constructed chimeric receptors in which individual extracellular loops of rat BRS-3 were replaced with the corresponding human sequences. Switching the N-terminal region or the second extracellular loop did not significantly change receptor properties. However, switching the third extracellular loop (E3) in the rat BRS-3 resulted in a chimeric receptor (RB3-E3) that behaved almost identically to human BRS-3. RB3-E3 bound dY-bombesin with high affinity (K(i) = 1.2 +/- 0.7 nM), and was activated by dY-bombesin with high potency (EC(50) = 1.8 +/- 0.5 nM). Within the E3 loop, mutation of Y(298)E(299)S(300) to S(298)Q(299)T(300) (RB3-SQT) or of D(306)V(307)P(308) to A(306)M(307)H(308) (RB3-AMH) only partially mimicked the effect of switching the entire E3 loop, and mutation of A(302)E(303) to V(302)D(303) or of V(310)V(311) to I(310)F(311) had little effect on the dY-bombesin potency. These results indicate that the sequence variation in the E3 loop is responsible for the species difference between rat and human BRS-3, and multiple residues in the E3 loop are involved in interactions with the agonist dY-bombesin.