Structural and Functional Insights into CRF Peptides and Their Receptors

Overview

Journal Biology (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Biology

Date 2024 Feb 23

PMID 38392338

Authors

Minos-Timotheos Matsoukas

Vasilis Panagiotopoulos

Vlasios Karageorgos

George P Chrousos

Maria Venihaki

George Liapakis

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Corticotropin-releasing factor or hormone (CRF or CRH) and the urocortins regulate a plethora of physiological functions and are involved in many pathophysiological processes. CRF and urocortins belong to the family of CRF peptides (CRF family), which includes sauvagine, urotensin, and many synthetic peptide and non-peptide CRF analogs. Several of the CRF analogs have shown considerable therapeutic potential in the treatment of various diseases. The CRF peptide family act by interacting with two types of plasma membrane proteins, type 1 (CRFR) and type 2 (CRFR), which belong to subfamily B1 of the family B G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). This work describes the structure of CRF peptides and their receptors and the activation mechanism of the latter, which is compared with that of other GPCRs. It also discusses recent structural information that rationalizes the selective binding of various ligands to the two CRF receptor types and the activation of receptors by different agonists.

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