Effect of inhibiting N-glycosylation or oligosaccharide processing on vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor binding activity and structure.

We used inhibitors of four steps of the glycosylation pathway to examine the contribution of carbohydrate moieties to the ligand-binding activity, cell-surface expression and apparent molecular mass of the human vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) receptor. Human melanoma IGR 39 cells, incubated for 60 h with the inhibitors tunicamycin, castanospermine, swainsonine or deoxymannojirimycin, under conditions where cell viability and protein synthesis were not affected, expressed VIP receptor species with different VIP-binding properties. The most pronounced effects on VIP binding were obtained with tunicamycin and deoxymannojirimycin, which respectively caused 80% and 67% inhibition. Treatment with either swainsonine or castanospermine resulted in only a 25-32% decrease in VIP specific binding. Based on Scatchard analyses of data from competition experiments, the decrease in VIP-binding activity in either swainsonine- or deoxymannojirimycin-treated cells was due to a decrease in ligand affinity; the cell-surface number of VIP-binding sites remained unchanged. In contrast, tunicamycin and castanospermine caused decreases in the cell-surface number of functional VIP receptors without affecting affinity. Besides, the drug-treated cells produced VIP-binding proteins with different molecular masses and endoglycosidase H (Endo H) sensitivities. When compared with their counterpart synthesized in control cells, VIP-binding proteins produced by deoxymannojirimycin- or swainsonine-treated cells were smaller in size and exhibited the expected sensitivity to Endo H. No modification in the apparent molecular mass was observed in the presence of either castanospermine or tunicamycin. In addition, after Endo F digestion, all of the deglycosylated proteins migrated with the same electrophoretic mobility. Finally, processing in the presence of castanospermine led to an Endo H-resistant receptor species which showed an unexpected neuraminidase-sensitivity, indicating that, as in control cells, these receptors carry V-linked oligosaccharides with terminal sialic acid residues.