Funding Organization(s): National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program); National Natural Science Foundation of China; Chinese Academy of Sciences
N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are critical for synaptic development and plasticity. While glutamate is the primary agonist, protons can modulate NMDA receptor activity at synapses during vesicle exocytosis by mechanisms that are unknown. We u ...
N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are critical for synaptic development and plasticity. While glutamate is the primary agonist, protons can modulate NMDA receptor activity at synapses during vesicle exocytosis by mechanisms that are unknown. We used cryo-electron microscopy to solve the structures of the human GluN1-GluN2A NMDA receptor at pH 7.8 and pH 6.3. Our structures demonstrate that the proton sensor predominantly resides in the N-terminal domain (NTD) of the GluN2A subunit and reveal the allosteric coupling mechanism between the proton sensor and the channel gate. Under high-pH conditions, the GluN2A-NTD adopts an "open-and-twisted" conformation. However, upon protonation at the lower pH, the GluN2A-NTD transits from an open- to closed-cleft conformation, causing rearrangements between the tetrameric NTDs and agonist-binding domains. The conformational mobility observed in our structures (presumably from protonation) is supported by molecular dynamics simulation. Our findings reveal the structural mechanisms by which protons allosterically inhibit human GluN1-GluN2A receptor activity.
Organizational Affiliation:
Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, CAS Key Laboratory of Receptor Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Drug Discovery and Design Center, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, CAS Key Laboratory of Receptor Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Shanghai 201203, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Electronic address: cluo@simm.ac.cn.,Department of Biophysics, and Department of Pathology of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.,Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Electronic address: shujiazhu@ion.ac.cn.,Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.,Department of Biophysics, and Department of Pathology of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China; Center of Cryo Electron Microscopy, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China. Electronic address: xzhang1999@zju.edu.cn.,Center of Cryo Electron Microscopy, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.,Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Biophysics, and Department of Pathology of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China; Center of Cryo Electron Microscopy, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
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