Cryo-EM reveals a new allosteric binding site at the M5mAChR
Abstract
The M5muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (M5mAChR) represents a promising therapeutic target for neurological disorders. However, the high conservation of its orthosteric binding site has posed significant challenges for drug development. While selective positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) offer a potential solution, a structural understanding of the M5mAChR and its allosteric binding sites has remained limited. Here, we present a 2.8 Å cryo-electron microscopy structure of the M5mAChR complexed with heterotrimeric Gqprotein and the agonist iperoxo, completing the active-state structural characterization of the mAChR family. To identify the binding site of M5-selective PAMs, we implemented an integrated approach combining mutagenesis, pharmacological assays, structural biology, and molecular dynamics simulations. Our mutagenesis studies revealed that selective M5PAMs bind outside previously characterized M5mAChR allosteric sites. Subsequently, we obtained a 2.1 Å structure of M5mAChR co-bound with acetylcholine and the selective PAM VU6007678, revealing a novel allosteric pocket at the extrahelical interface between transmembrane domains 3 and 4 that was confirmed through mutagenesis and simulations. These findings demonstrate the diverse mechanisms of allosteric regulation in mAChRs and highlight the value of integrating pharmacological and structural approaches to identify novel allosteric binding sites.
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