The Role of Lipids in Allosteric Modulation of Dopamine D2 Receptor—In Silico Study

Abstract

The dopamine D2 receptor, belonging to the class A G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), is an important drug target for several diseases, including schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. The D2 receptor can be activated by the natural neurotransmitter dopamine or by synthetic ligands, which in both cases leads to the receptor coupling with a G protein. In addition to receptor modulation by orthosteric or allosteric ligands, it has been shown that lipids may affect the behaviour of membrane proteins. We constructed a model of a D2 receptor with a long intracellular loop (ICL3) coupled with Giα1 or Giα2 proteins, embedded in a complex asymmetric membrane, and simulated it in complex with positive, negative or neutral allosteric ligands. In this study, we focused on the influence of ligand binding and G protein coupling on the membrane–receptor interactions. We show that there is a noticeable interplay between the cell membrane, G proteins, D2 receptor and its modulators.