Structural insights into Frizzled3 through nanobody modulators.

Hillier J., Zhao Y., Carrique L., Malinauskas T., Ruza RR., Chang T-H., Yi G., Duyvesteyn HME., Yu J., Lu W., Pardon E., Steyaert J., Zhu Y., Ni T., Jones EY.

The Wnt receptor Frizzled3 (FZD3) is important for brain axonal development and cancer progression. We report structures of FZD3 in complex with extracellular and intracellular binding nanobodies (Nb). The crystal structure of Nb8 in complex with the FZD3 cysteine-rich domain (CRD) reveals that the nanobody binds at the base of the lipid-binding groove and can compete with Wnt5a. Nb8 fused with the Dickkopf-1 C-terminal domain behaves as a FZD3-specific Wnt surrogate, activating β-catenin signalling. The cryo-EM structure of FZD3 in complex with Nb9 reveals partially resolved density for the CRD, which exhibits positional flexibility, and a transmembrane conformation that resembles active GPCRs. Nb9 binds to the cytoplasmic region of FZD3 at the putative Dishevelled (DVL) or G protein-binding site, competes with DVL binding, and inhibits GαS coupling. In combination, our FZD3 structures with nanobody modulators map extracellular and intracellular interaction surfaces of functional, and potentially therapeutic, relevance.

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-51451-1

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nat Commun

Publication Date

22/08/2024

Volume

15

Keywords

Frizzled Receptors, Humans, Single-Domain Antibodies, Protein Binding, Crystallography, X-Ray, HEK293 Cells, Binding Sites, Cryoelectron Microscopy, Animals, Models, Molecular, Protein Domains, Dishevelled Proteins, Wnt Signaling Pathway, beta Catenin

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