Class B1 G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) play important roles in human physiology and disease pathology. Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and X-ray crystallography, the 3D structures of all 15 members of this receptor subfamily have been determined in recent years at the near-atomic level. Although they share many structural commonalities, they show distinct features in terms of ligand recognition and receptor activation. In-depth structural analyses have yielded valuable insights into the N termini of both peptide hormones and cognate receptors, the outward movement of transmembrane helix 6 (TM6), the allosteric modulation sites located in the transmembrane domain (TMD), and the constitutive signaling bias mediated by receptor splice variants. These provide new directions for the design of better therapeutic agents, thereby making these targets more druggable.
Rapid advancesG protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs, see Glossary) are the most abundant membrane proteins involved in numerous physiological functions [1]. One GPCR class, the B1 or secretin family, comprises 15 receptors for peptide hormones that regulate a variety of biological processes ranging from growth and development to metabolism and neuroactivities, thereby making them important therapeutic targets for many diseases [2]. Several drugs against this class have been successfully launched to the market, and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) receptor agonists have reached 'blockbuster' status [3,4]. In earlier years X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) structural studies on class B1 GPCRs mainly focused on the apo state and ligand-receptor complex structures (Table S1 in the supplemental material online), providing substantial information about the conformations of these receptor extracellular domains (ECDs) and transmembrane domains (TMDs), as well as about the structural basis of ligand recognition. To deepen our knowledge on the structure-activity relationship of these ligand-receptor pairs, the first two full-length structures were determined using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) in 2017 [5,6]. Since then the cryo-EM structures for all 15 members of class B1 GPCRs have been solved (Figure 1), not only giving valuable information about hormone recognition and receptor activation from a class-wide perspective but also providing a useful template for the design and development of better peptidic and/or small-molecule drugs [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16].