Rules of engagement: determinants of chemokine receptor activation and selectivity by CCL27 and CCL28

The distinct functional roles of chemokines CCL27 and CCL28 in epithelial immunity of skin and mucosal tissues, respectively, are coordinated by their shared receptor, CCR10 and the CCL28-specific receptor, CCR3. In this study, we conducted structure-function studies focused on the N-termini of these two chemokines to identify determinants of receptor activation, internalization and binding specificity. Deletion of two N-terminal residues of CCL27 resulted in a CCR10 antagonist, highlighting the critical roles of these residues in driving receptor pharmacology. Extension with a Phe produced a superagonist by occupying an available subpocket in the receptor binding site. Swapping the N-terminus of CCL28 onto the CCL27 globular domain (NT28-CCL27) also resulted in a superagonist of CCR10, but the opposite swap (NT27-CCL28) showed equivalent or reduced activity compared to WT CCL28, indicating that the CCL28 N-terminus is a stronger driver of CCR10 signaling. The effect of these and other mutations were rationalized by AlphaFold models of the CCR10 complexes. AlphaFold modeling also revealed that the reduced size of the binding pocket, and more basic nature of the N-terminus and extracellular loops of CCR3 compared to CCR10, contribute to its specificity for CCL28 while CCR10 accommodates both ligands. The overall basic nature of CCL28 also contributes to its high affinity for glycosaminoglycans, which is likely important for its retention in mucosal tissues. These data illustrate the modular compositions of these chemokines that has evolved to achieve overlapping but non-redundant functions, and the exploitation of this modular nature to produce engineered chemokines for probing or targeting CCR10 in disease contexts.