Allosteric inhibition of the T cell receptor by a designed membrane ligand
The T cell receptor (TCR) is a complex molecular machine that directs the activation of T cells, allowing the immune system to fight pathogens and cancer cells. Despite decades of investigation, the molecular mechanism of TCR activation is still controversial. One of the leading activation hypothese...
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sg-ntu-dr.10356-1737662024-02-28T15:31:46Z Allosteric inhibition of the T cell receptor by a designed membrane ligand Ye, Yujie Morita, Shumpei Chang, Justin J. Buckley, Patrick M. Wilhelm, Kiera B. DiMaio, Daniel Groves, Jay T. Barrera, Francisco N. Institute for Digital Molecular Analytics and Science (IDMxS) Chemistry Ligands Phosphorylation The T cell receptor (TCR) is a complex molecular machine that directs the activation of T cells, allowing the immune system to fight pathogens and cancer cells. Despite decades of investigation, the molecular mechanism of TCR activation is still controversial. One of the leading activation hypotheses is the allosteric model. This model posits that binding of pMHC at the extracellular domain triggers a dynamic change in the transmembrane (TM) domain of the TCR subunits, which leads to signaling at the cytoplasmic side. We sought to test this hypothesis by creating a TM ligand for TCR. Previously we described a method to create a soluble peptide capable of inserting into membranes and binding to the TM domain of the receptor tyrosine kinase EphA2 (Alves et al., eLife, 2018). Here, we show that the approach is generalizable to complex membrane receptors, by designing a TM ligand for TCR. We observed that the designed peptide caused a reduction of Lck phosphorylation of TCR at the CD3ζ subunit in T cells. As a result, in the presence of this peptide inhibitor of TCR (PITCR), the proximal signaling cascade downstream of TCR activation was significantly dampened. Co-localization and co-immunoprecipitation in diisobutylene maleic acid (DIBMA) native nanodiscs confirmed that PITCR was able to bind to the TCR. AlphaFold-Multimer predicted that PITCR binds to the TM region of TCR, where it interacts with the two CD3ζ subunits. Our results additionally indicate that PITCR disrupts the allosteric changes in the compactness of the TM bundle that occur upon TCR activation, lending support to the allosteric TCR activation model. The TCR inhibition achieved by PITCR might be useful to treat inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and to prevent organ transplant rejection, as in these conditions aberrant activation of TCR contributes to disease. Published version This work was supported by NIH grants R35GM140846 (to FNB) and R35CA242462 (to DD), and NIH training grant (T32AI055403) and National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship (DGE-2139841) to PMB, and additionanlly by a Faculty-Graduate student award to YY (University of Tennessee). 2024-02-27T07:14:21Z 2024-02-27T07:14:21Z 2023 Journal Article Ye, Y., Morita, S., Chang, J. J., Buckley, P. M., Wilhelm, K. B., DiMaio, D., Groves, J. T. & Barrera, F. N. (2023). Allosteric inhibition of the T cell receptor by a designed membrane ligand. ELife, 12, e82861-. https://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.82861 2050-084X https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173766 10.7554/eLife.82861 37796108 2-s2.0-85175587075 12 e82861 en DGE-2139841 R35CA242462 R35GM140846 T32AI055403 eLife © 2023 Ye et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. application/pdf |
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Chemistry Ligands Phosphorylation Ye, Yujie Morita, Shumpei Chang, Justin J. Buckley, Patrick M. Wilhelm, Kiera B. DiMaio, Daniel Groves, Jay T. Barrera, Francisco N. Allosteric inhibition of the T cell receptor by a designed membrane ligand |
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The T cell receptor (TCR) is a complex molecular machine that directs the activation of T cells, allowing the immune system to fight pathogens and cancer cells. Despite decades of investigation, the molecular mechanism of TCR activation is still controversial. One of the leading activation hypotheses is the allosteric model. This model posits that binding of pMHC at the extracellular domain triggers a dynamic change in the transmembrane (TM) domain of the TCR subunits, which leads to signaling at the cytoplasmic side. We sought to test this hypothesis by creating a TM ligand for TCR. Previously we described a method to create a soluble peptide capable of inserting into membranes and binding to the TM domain of the receptor tyrosine kinase EphA2 (Alves et al., eLife, 2018). Here, we show that the approach is generalizable to complex membrane receptors, by designing a TM ligand for TCR. We observed that the designed peptide caused a reduction of Lck phosphorylation of TCR at the CD3ζ subunit in T cells. As a result, in the presence of this peptide inhibitor of TCR (PITCR), the proximal signaling cascade downstream of TCR activation was significantly dampened. Co-localization and co-immunoprecipitation in diisobutylene maleic acid (DIBMA) native nanodiscs confirmed that PITCR was able to bind to the TCR. AlphaFold-Multimer predicted that PITCR binds to the TM region of TCR, where it interacts with the two CD3ζ subunits. Our results additionally indicate that PITCR disrupts the allosteric changes in the compactness of the TM bundle that occur upon TCR activation, lending support to the allosteric TCR activation model. The TCR inhibition achieved by PITCR might be useful to treat inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and to prevent organ transplant rejection, as in these conditions aberrant activation of TCR contributes to disease. |
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Institute for Digital Molecular Analytics and Science (IDMxS) |
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Institute for Digital Molecular Analytics and Science (IDMxS) Ye, Yujie Morita, Shumpei Chang, Justin J. Buckley, Patrick M. Wilhelm, Kiera B. DiMaio, Daniel Groves, Jay T. Barrera, Francisco N. |
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Article |
author |
Ye, Yujie Morita, Shumpei Chang, Justin J. Buckley, Patrick M. Wilhelm, Kiera B. DiMaio, Daniel Groves, Jay T. Barrera, Francisco N. |
author_sort |
Ye, Yujie |
title |
Allosteric inhibition of the T cell receptor by a designed membrane ligand |
title_short |
Allosteric inhibition of the T cell receptor by a designed membrane ligand |
title_full |
Allosteric inhibition of the T cell receptor by a designed membrane ligand |
title_fullStr |
Allosteric inhibition of the T cell receptor by a designed membrane ligand |
title_full_unstemmed |
Allosteric inhibition of the T cell receptor by a designed membrane ligand |
title_sort |
allosteric inhibition of the t cell receptor by a designed membrane ligand |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173766 |
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1794549347887611904 |