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Development and Validation of a Novel Quantitative Assay for Cell Development and Validation of a Novel Quantitative Assay for Cell Surface expression of GPCRs using a Receptor β-lactamase Fusion Protein and the Colourometric Substrate Nitrocefin by Vincent Lam A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology University of Toronto © Copyright by Vincent Lam 2013 Development and Validation of a Novel Quantitative Assay for Cell Surface Expression of GPCRs using a Receptor β-lactamase Fusion Protein and the Colourometric Substrate Nitrocefin Vincent Lam Master of Science Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology University of Toronto 2013 Abstract Trafficking of GPCRs is a dynamic process that is tightly regulated and sometimes defective in human diseases. Therefore it is important to develop new methods to allow simple and quantitative measurement of surface expression of membrane proteins. Here we describe the development and validation of a new assay for quantification of cell surface expression of GPCRs using β-lactamase as a reporter. For this assay we N-terminally fused β-lactamase (βlac) to the β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR) and GABA b R1 (GBR1). The results obtained by the βlac assay are quantitatively and qualitatively similar to well established ELISA when measuring agonist induced internalization of β2AR. We also show that measurement of GBR1 surface expression with GBR2 co-expression is quantitatively identical between the βlac and ELISA. In conclusion, our results show that our newly developed βlac assay is quantitatively similar while being less expensive, more robust and higher throughput compared to an ELISA. ii Acknowledgments I would like to thank the following people who have made completion of the thesis possible. First I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to Dr. Ali Salahpour for his guidance, mentorship, support, and endless positive encouragement throughout the completion of this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Jane Mitchell (co-supervisor) for her advice and critical analyses of my work. I would also like to thank Dr. Amy Ramsey and Dr. David Riddick (Advisor) for their support, guidance, and suggestions. Furthermore I would like to thank the members of the Ramsey and Salahpour lab for their support and intellectual discussion during my studies. Lastly I would like to thank my friends and family for their endless encouragement and support throughout my time in graduate studies, without them this thesis would not have been possible. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... viii List of Appendices .......................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Specific Aims and Working Hypothesis ......................................................................................... 1 1.0 GPCR Pharmacology .......................................................................................................... 2 1.1 GPCR Classification ........................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Structure and function ......................................................................................................... 4 1.3 GPCR Signalling ................................................................................................................. 5 1.3.1 Ligand binding to receptor ...................................................................................... 5 1.3.2 G-proteins ............................................................................................................... 7 1.3.3 Effectors .................................................................................................................. 8 1.4 GPCR Trafficking from the ER .......................................................................................... 9 1.4.1 Signal Sequences .................................................................................................. 10 1.4.2 Post translational modifications ........................................................................... 12 1.4.3 Molecular Chaperones .......................................................................................... 14 1.4.4 Pharmacological Chaperones and Diseases ......................................................... 16 1.5 GPCR Oligomerization ..................................................................................................... 17 1.6 GPCR Endocytic Trafficking ............................................................................................ 18 1.6.1 G-protein Coupled Receptor Kinases (GRK) ....................................................... 19 1.6.2 Arrestins ................................................................................................................ 20 1.6.3 Tonic/Constitutive Internalization ........................................................................ 22 1.6.4 Endocytic pathway ................................................................................................ 22 1.7 Summary of Assays for measuring surface expression of GPCRs ................................... 23 1.7.1 Fluorogen Activating Protein Biosensor ............................................................... 25 1.7.2 Internalization Assays ........................................................................................... 26 1.7.3 N-terminal GPCR Fusion Tags ............................................................................. 27 1.8 β-lactamase Assay ............................................................................................................. 28 Chapter 2 Materials and Methods ................................................................................................. 33 2.1 Reagents ............................................................................................................................ 33 2.2 Plasmid Construction ........................................................................................................ 33 2.3 Cell Culture ....................................................................................................................... 33 2.4 Generation of Stable Cell Lines and Transient Transfections .......................................... 34 2.5 Western Blotting ............................................................................................................... 34 2.6 βlac-β2AR Immunofluorescence ...................................................................................... 34 2.7 βlac-β2AR Functional Assay using BRET EPAC cAMP Biosensor ............................... 35 2.8 βlac Assay ......................................................................................................................... 35 2.9 ELISA ............................................................................................................................... 35 2.10 βlac-β2AR Agonist Studies............................................................................................... 36 2.11 βlac-β2AR Antagonist Studies .......................................................................................... 36 iv 2.12 βlac-β2AR Z’ Determination for Agonist Induced Internalization................................... 36 2.13 GBR1 Molecular Chaperoning Studies ............................................................................ 36 2.14 Data Analyses ................................................................................................................... 37 Chapter 3 Results .......................................................................................................................... 38 3.1 Generation of the βlac Plasmids and Stable Cell Lines Expressing βlac-GPCR Fusion Constructs ................................................................................................................................. 38 3.2 Trafficking and Signalling of the βlac-β2AR ................................................................... 38 3.3 βlac-β2AR experiments .................................................................................................... 42 3.3.1 Comparison of Isoproterenol stimulated β2AR Internalization using the βlac and the ELISA Assays ...................................................................................................... 42 3.3.2 Antagonist Blocking of Isoproterenol Induced Internalization of the β2AR ........ 46 3.3.3 Z’ Determination of the SS-HA-βlac-β2AR Internalization ................................. 46 3.3.4 Pharmacological Chaperoning using β2AR Antagonists ...................................... 48 3.4 Comparison of
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