Ligand-Induced and -Independent Internalization of the Chemerin Receptor GPR1

Abstract 1. Tight regulation of cytokines is essential for the initiation and resolution of inflammation. Chemerin, a mediator of innate immunity, mainly acts on chemokine-like receptor 1 (CMKLR1) to induce the migration of macrophages and dendritic cells. The role of the second chemerin receptor, G protein-coupled receptor 1 (GPR1), is still unclear. Here we demonstrate that GPR1 shows ligand-induced arrestin3 recruitment and internalization. The chemerin C-terminus triggers this activation by folding into a loop structure, binding to aromatic residues in the extracellular loops of GPR1. While this overall binding mode is shared between GPR1 and CMKLR1, differences in their respective extracellular loop 2 allowed for the design of the first GPR1-selective peptide. However, our results suggest that ligand-induced arrestin recruitment is not the only mode of action of GPR1. This receptor also displays constitutive internalization and recycling, which allows GPR1 to internalize inactive peptides efficiently by an activation-independent pathway. Our results demonstrate that GPR1 takes a dual role in regulating chemerin activity: As a signaling receptor for arrestin-based signaling on one hand, and as a scavenging receptor with broader ligand specificity on the other.