Structure–activity relationship of GPR15L peptide analogues and investigation of their interaction with the GPR15 receptor

The 57‐mer full‐length GPR15L(25‐81) peptide has been identified as the principal endogenous agonist of the G protein‐coupled receptor GPR15. Its main activity resides in the C‐terminal 11‐mer GPR15L(71‐81), which has full efficacy but ~40‐fold lower potency than the full‐length peptide. Here, we systematically investigated the structure–activity relationship of GPR15L(71‐81) by truncations/extensions, alanine‐scanning, and N‐ and C‐terminal capping. The synthesized peptide analogues were tested at GPR15 stably expressed in HEK293A cells using a homogenous time‐resolved Förster resonance energy transfer‐based Gi cAMP functional assay. We show that the C‐terminal α carboxyl group and the residues Leu78, Pro75, Val74, and Trp72 are critical for receptor interaction and contribute significantly to the peptide potency. Furthermore, we tested the ability of GPR15L(71‐81), C‐terminally amidated GPR15L(71‐81), and GPR15L(25‐81) to activate the three GPR15 receptor mutants in a bioluminescence resonance energy transfer‐based G protein activation assay. The results demonstrate that the Lys192 and Glu272 residues in GPR15 are important for the potency of the GPR15L peptide. Overall, our study identifies critical residues in the peptide and receptor sequences for future drug design.