Nature Communications (Aug 2021)

Molecular recognition of an acyl-peptide hormone and activation of ghrelin receptor

  • Yue Wang,
  • Shimeng Guo,
  • Youwen Zhuang,
  • Ying Yun,
  • Peiyu Xu,
  • Xinheng He,
  • Jia Guo,
  • Wanchao Yin,
  • H. Eric Xu,
  • Xin Xie,
  • Yi Jiang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25364-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Ghrelin is a gastric peptide hormone and its acylation is required for binding to and activation of the ghrelin receptor in the brain, which initiates appetite. Here, the authors present cryo-EM structures of the Gq-coupled ghrelin receptor bound to ghrelin and the synthetic agonist GHRP-6 and they describe how the acylated peptide hormone is recognised by the receptor, which is of interest for drug design.