Constitutive activation of the human vasoactive intestinal peptide 1 receptor, a member of the new class II family of G protein-coupled receptors.

The human vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) 1 receptor belongs to the new class II subfamily of G protein-coupled receptors. Specific change by mutagenesis of a strictly conserved histidine into arginine at position 178 of the human VIP1 receptor resulted in its constitutive activation with respect to cAMP production. Transfection of the H178R mutant into COS cells resulted in a 3.5-fold increase in the cAMP level as compared with cells transfected with the wild type receptor or the vector alone. This increase was proportional to the amount of transfected cDNA. The H178R mutant exhibited an otherwise normal cAMP response to VIP as well as a dissociation constant similar to that of the wild type receptor. Other mutants at position 178 such as H178K, H178A, and H178D were not constitutively activated. They were otherwise expressed at the cell surface of transfected nonpermeabilized cells. Double mutants were then constructed in which the H178R mutation was associated with a point mutation in the the N-terminal extracellular domain that totally abolished VIP binding or VIP-stimulated cAMP production, i.e. E36A or D68A. The corresponding double mutants H178R/E36A and H178R/D68A were no longer constitutively activated. A control double mutant (H178R/D132A) with an unaltered dissociation constant for VIP and cAMP response to VIP was still constitutively activated. Our findings demonstrate that constitutive activation of the VIP1 receptor by mutation of His178 into R requires the functional integrity of the N-terminal extracellular VIP binding domain. They might provide interesting generalities about the activation process of G protein-coupled receptors.