Structural Basis for ( S)-3,4-Dicarboxyphenylglycine (DCPG) As a Potent and Subtype Selective Agonist of the mGlu Receptor.

( S)-3,4-Dicarboxyphenylglycine (DCPG) was first reported in 2001 as a potent orthosteric agonist with high subtype selectivity for the mGlu receptor, but the structural basis for its high selectivity is not well understood. We have solved a cocrystal structure of recombinant human mGlu amino terminal domain (ATD) protein bound to ( S)-DCPG, which possesses the largest lobe opening angle observed to date among known agonist-bound mGlu ATD crystal structures. The binding conformation of ( S)-DCPG observed in the crystal structure is significantly different from that in the homology model built from an l-glutamate-bound rat mGlu ATD crystal structure, which has a smaller lobe opening angle. This highlights the importance of considering various lobe opening angles when modeling mGlu ATD-ligand complex. New homology models of other mGlu receptors based on the ( S)-DCPG-bound mGlu ATD crystal structure were explored to rationalize ( S)-DCPG's high mGlu receptor subtype selectivity.