Novel arylpyrazole compounds selectively modulate glucocorticoid receptor regulatory activity.
The activities of intracellular receptors are regulated by their cognate ligands. Here we show that a series of related arylpyrazole compounds, which specifically bind the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), selectively modulated GR-regulated biological functions in preadipocyte, pre-osteoblast, and lung epithelial cell lines. Indeed, when we monitored 17 endogenous GR target genes in one of these cell types, we found that distinct arylpyrazole compounds induced different expression patterns. We showed by chromatin immunoprecipitation that the arylpyrazole compounds regulated, in a gene-specific manner, either GR occupancy of the genomic glucocorticoid response element (GRE) or events after GR association, such as histone modification. Overall, our results establish that subtle differences in ligand chemistry can profoundly influence the transcriptional regulatory activity of GR, and that endogenous genes bearing natural GREs are especially sensitive detectors of these differences.
Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94107-2280, USA.
Jen-Chywan
JC
Wang
Nilesh
N
Shah
Carlos
C
Pantoja
Sebastiaan H
SH
Meijsing
Joseph D
JD
Ho
Thomas S
TS
Scanlan
Keith R
KR
Yamamoto
D041721:3T3-L1 Cells; D000107:Acetylation; D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000494:pharmacology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011239:Prednisolone / Q000494:pharmacology; D011720:Pyrazoles / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011965:Receptors, Glucocorticoid / Q000187:drug effects*
D006657:Histones; D011720:Pyrazoles; D011965:Receptors, Glucocorticoid; D003907:Dexamethasone; D011239:Prednisolone