Prostaglandin E2 glyceryl ester is an endogenous agonist of the nucleotide receptor P2Y6

Sci Rep. 2017 May 24;7(1):2380. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-02414-8.

Abstract

Cyclooxygenase-2 catalyses the biosynthesis of prostaglandins from arachidonic acid but also the biosynthesis of prostaglandin glycerol esters (PG-Gs) from 2-arachidonoylglycerol. Previous studies identified PG-Gs as signalling molecules involved in inflammation. Thus, the glyceryl ester of prostaglandin E2, PGE2-G, mobilizes Ca2+ and activates protein kinase C and ERK, suggesting the involvement of a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). To identify the endogenous receptor for PGE2-G, we performed a subtractive screening approach where mRNA from PGE2-G response-positive and -negative cell lines was subjected to transcriptome-wide RNA sequencing analysis. We found several GPCRs that are only expressed in the PGE2-G responder cell lines. Using a set of functional readouts in heterologous and endogenous expression systems, we identified the UDP receptor P2Y6 as the specific target of PGE2-G. We show that PGE2-G and UDP are both agonists at P2Y6, but they activate the receptor with extremely different EC50 values of ~1 pM and ~50 nM, respectively. The identification of the PGE2-G/P2Y6 pair uncovers the signalling mode of PG-Gs as previously under-appreciated products of cyclooxygenase-2.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Binding Sites
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cyclooxygenase 2 / genetics
  • Cyclooxygenase 2 / metabolism
  • Dinoprostone / analogs & derivatives*
  • Dinoprostone / biosynthesis
  • Dinoprostone / chemistry
  • HEK293 Cells
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays
  • Humans
  • Kinetics
  • Ligands
  • Mice
  • Molecular Docking Simulation
  • Protein Binding
  • Protein Conformation, alpha-Helical
  • Protein Conformation, beta-Strand
  • Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs
  • Purinergic Agonists / chemistry*
  • Purinergic Agonists / metabolism
  • RAW 264.7 Cells
  • Receptors, Purinergic P2 / chemistry*
  • Receptors, Purinergic P2 / genetics
  • Receptors, Purinergic P2 / metabolism
  • Substrate Specificity
  • Thermodynamics
  • Transcriptome*

Substances

  • Ligands
  • Purinergic Agonists
  • Receptors, Purinergic P2
  • prostaglandin E2 glyceryl ester
  • purinoceptor P2Y6
  • Cyclooxygenase 2
  • Dinoprostone