Bioluminescent CXCL12 fusion protein for cellular studies of CXCR4 and CXCR7

Biotechniques. 2009 Jul;47(1):625-32. doi: 10.2144/000113126.

Abstract

Chemokine CXCL12 and its two known receptors, CXCR4 and CXCR7, may play a role in diseases including tumor growth and metastasis, atherosclerosis, and HIV infection. Therefore, these molecules may be promising targets for drug development. While studies of cell signaling and high-throughput screening for drug discovery increasingly are based on luminescent assays because of their high sensitivity and signal-to-background ratio, there currently is no bioluminescent assay for chemokine[#x02013]chemokine receptor binding. To develop a bioluminescent probe for chemokine binding and cellular uptake, we fused CXCL12 to Gaussia luciferase (GL), an ATP-independent enzyme that is the smallest known luciferase. Fusing CXCL12 to Gaussia luciferase (CXCL12-GL) did not alter the bioluminescence emission spectrum and only minimally affected enzyme function under varying conditions of pH, temperature, and NaCl concentration. CXCL12-GL also activated CXCR4-dependent signaling to a comparable extent as unfused CXCL12. Using multiwell plate assays, we established that CXCR7 increases cell-associated CXCL12 to a significantly greater extent than CXCR4. We also showed that CXCL12-GL can be used to quantify inhibition of chemokine receptor binding by compounds that specifically target CXCR7. These data validate CXCL12-GL as a bioluminescent probe to investigate molecular functions of CXCR4 and CXCR7 and screen for compounds that modulate ligand-receptor binding.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biological Assay
  • Breast Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Cell Line
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Chemokine CXCL12 / metabolism*
  • Copepoda / enzymology
  • Copepoda / genetics
  • Drug Discovery
  • Female
  • Genetic Vectors
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Imidazoles / metabolism
  • Kidney / cytology
  • Lentivirus / genetics
  • Luciferases / chemistry
  • Luciferases / genetics
  • Luciferases / metabolism
  • Luminescent Measurements / methods*
  • Luminescent Proteins / genetics
  • Luminescent Proteins / metabolism
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • Protein Binding / genetics
  • Pyrazines / metabolism
  • Receptors, CXCR / metabolism*
  • Receptors, CXCR4 / metabolism*
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / chemistry
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction / genetics
  • Substrate Specificity
  • Transduction, Genetic

Substances

  • ACKR3 protein, human
  • Chemokine CXCL12
  • Imidazoles
  • Luminescent Proteins
  • Pyrazines
  • Receptors, CXCR
  • Receptors, CXCR4
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins
  • coelenterazine
  • Luciferases