Identification and functional separation of retinoic acid receptor neutral antagonists and inverse agonists. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Inverse agonists are ligands that are capable of repressing basal receptor activity in the absence of an agonist. We have designed a series of C-1-substituted acetylenic retinoids that exhibit potent antagonism of retinoic acid receptor (RAR)-mediated transactivation. Comparison of these related retinoid antagonists for their ability to repress basal RAR transcriptional activity demonstrates that the identity of the C-1 substituent differentiates these ligands into two groups: RAR inverse agonists and neutral antagonists. We show that treatment of cultured human keratinocytes with a RAR inverse agonist, but not a RAR neutral antagonist, leads to the repression of the serum-induced differentiation marker MRP-8. While RAR-selective agonists also repress expression of MRP-8, cotreatment with a RAR inverse agonist and a RAR agonist results in a mutual repression of their individual inhibitory activities, indicating the distinct modes of action of these two disparate retinoids in modulating MRP-8 expression. Our data indicate that RARs, like beta2-adrenoreceptors, are sensitive to inverse agonists and that this new class of retinoids will provide insight into the molecular mechanisms of RAR function in skin and other responsive tissues.

published proceedings

  • J Biol Chem

altmetric score

  • 6

author list (cited authors)

  • Klein, E. S., Pino, M. E., Johnson, A. T., Davies, P. J., Nagpal, S., Thacher, S. M., Krasinski, G., & Chandraratna, R. A.

citation count

  • 94

complete list of authors

  • Klein, ES||Pino, ME||Johnson, AT||Davies, PJ||Nagpal, S||Thacher, SM||Krasinski, G||Chandraratna, RA

publication date

  • January 1996