PRL is an anterior pituitary hormone that, along with GH and PLs, forms a family of hormones that probably resulted from the duplication of an ancestral gene. The PRLR is also a member of a larger family, known as the cytokine class-1 receptor superfamily, which currently has more than 20 different members. PRLRs or binding sites are widely distributed throughout the body. In fact, it is difficult to find a tissue that does not express any PRLR mRNA or protein. In agreement with this wide distribution of receptors is the fact that now more than 300 separate actions of PRL have been reported in various vertebrates, including effects on water and salt balance, growth and development, endocrinology and metabolism, brain and behavior, reproduction, and immune regulation and protection. Clearly, a large proportion of these actions are directly or indirectly associated with the process of reproduction, including many behavioral effects. PRL is also becoming well known as an important regulator of immune function. A number of disease states, including the growth of different forms of cancer as well as various autoimmune diseases, appear to be related to an overproduction of PRL, which may act in an endocrine, autocrine, or paracrine manner, or via an increased sensitivity to the hormone. The first step in the mechanism of action of PRL is the binding to a cell surface receptor. The ligand binds in a two-step process in which site 1 on PRL binds to one receptor molecule, after which a second receptor molecule binds to site 2 on the hormone, forming a homodimer consisting of one molecule of PRL and two molecules of receptor. The PRLR contains no intrinsic tyrosine kinase cytoplasmic domain but associates with a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase, JAK2. Dimerization of the receptor induces tyrosine phosphorylation and activation of the JAK kinase followed by phosphorylation of the receptor. Other receptor-associated kinases of the Src family have also been shown to be activated by PRL. One major pathway of signaling involves phosphorylation of cytoplasmic State proteins, which themselves dimerize and translocate to nucleus and bind to specific promoter elements on PRL-responsive genes. In addition, the Ras/Raf/MAP kinase pathway is also activated by PRL and may be involved in the proliferative effects of the hormone. Finally, a number of other potential mediators have been identified, including IRS-1, PI-3 kinase, SHP-2, PLC gamma, PKC, and intracellular Ca2+. The technique of gene targeting in mice has been used to develop the first experimental model in which the effect of the complete absence of any lactogen or PRL-mediated effects can be studied. Heterozygous (+/-) females show almost complete failure to lactate after the first, but not subsequent, pregnancies. Homozygous (-/-) females are infertile due to multiple reproductive abnormalities, including ovulation of premeiotic oocytes, reduced fertilization of oocytes, reduced preimplantation oocyte development, lack of embryo implantation, and the absence of pseudopregnancy. Twenty per cent of the homozygous males showed delayed fertility. Other phenotypes, including effects on the immune system and bone, are currently being examined. It is clear that there are multiple actions associated with PRL. It will be important to correlate known effects with local production of PRL to differentiate classic endocrine from autocrine/paracrine effects. The fact that extrapituitary PRL can, under some circumstances, compensate for pituitary PRL raises the interesting possibility that there may be effects of PRL other than those originally observed in hypophysectomized rats. The PRLR knockout mouse model should be an interesting system by which to look for effects activated only by PRL or other lactogenic hormones. On the other hand, many of the effects reported in this review may be shared with other hormones, cytokines, or growth factors and thus will be more difficult to study. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)

Prolactin (PRL) and Its Receptor: Actions, Signal Transduction Pathways and Phenotypes Observed in PRL Receptor Knockout Mice

I. Introduction PRL PL, and GH are homologous proteins that are thought to have arisen from a common ancestral gene by two successive tandem duplications (Refs. 1–5; for review, see Ref. 6). PRL and GH are mainly secreted by the anterior pituitary of all vertebrates. The divergence of the PRL and GH lineage from the common ancestral gene has been located some 400 million years ago, which is in good agreement with the presence of distinct PRL and GH in fish (2, 3, 6, 7). PL is uniquely observed in mammals and is secreted in the placenta by syncytiotrophoblastic cells (for reviews, see Refs. 8–10). Initially, PLs were proposed to have evolved from the common PRL/GH precursor gene (1). Further cloning and analysis of PRL, GH, and PL genes from different species (chromosome carrier, gene size, splicing sites, sequence identity; see Refs. 6, 7, 11, and 12) have led to a reconsideration of this hypothesis, and it is now assumed that primate PLs evolved from the GH lineage while nonprimate PLs arose from the PRL...

/pdf/sequence-function-relationships-within-the-expanding-family-42olgkyi6p.pdf

Sequence-function relationships within the expanding family of prolactin, growth hormone, placental lactogen, and related proteins in mammals

There is a large body of literature showing that prolactin (PRL) exerts growth-promoting activities in breast cancer, and possibly in prostate cancer and prostate hyperplasia. In addition, increasing evidence argues for the involvement of locally produced (autocrine) PRL, perhaps even more than pituitary-secreted (endocrine) PRL, in tumor growth. Because dopamine analogs are unable to inhibit PRL production in extrapituitary sites, alternative strategies need investigation. To that end, several PRL receptor antagonists have been developed by introducing various mutations into its natural ligands. For all but one of these analogs, the mechanism of action involves a competition with endogenous PRL for receptor binding. Such compounds are thus candidates to counteract the undesired actions of PRL, not only in tumors, but also in dopamine-resistant prolactinomas. In this review, we describe the different versions of antagonists that have been developed, with emphasis on the controversies regarding their characterization, and the limits for their potential development as a drug. The most recently developed antagonist, Delta1-9-G129R-hPRL, is the only one that is totally devoid of residual agonistic activity, meaning it acts as pure antagonist. We discuss to what extent this new molecule could be considered as a lead compound for inhibiting the actions of human PRL in the above-mentioned diseases. We also speculate on the multiple questions that could be addressed with respect to the therapeutic use of PRL receptor antagonists in patients.

/pdf/development-and-potential-clinical-uses-of-human-prolactin-1sb6lb33av.pdf

Development and potential clinical uses of human prolactin receptor antagonists.

Development of pure prolactin receptor antagonists.

Antagonistic properties of human prolactin analogs that show paradoxical agonistic activity in the Nb2 bioassay.

We have generated 10 alanine mutants of human PRL (hPRL), a member of the PRL/GH family, to investigate the involvement of the highly conserved 58-74 region in the biological behavior of the protein. When treated with polyclonal anti-hPRL antibodies, all mutants were immunologically indistinguishable from the unmodified hPRL, and circular dichroism analyses indicated that their alpha-helix content was similar to that of the unmodified hormone. Mutations C58A, K69A, and, to a lesser extent, P66A affected drastically the ability of hPRL first to bind to the lactogenic receptor and second to stimulate the proliferation of Nb2 lymphoma cells, proving the importance of the 58-74 peptide segment for hPRL bioactivity. Binding affinities of these mutants to the Nb2 lactogenic receptor have been compared to lactogenic binding data previously obtained for several mutants of hGH. The comparison reveals that the residues involved in the biological properties of the two proteins are not at topologically equivalent pos...

Alanine-scanning mutagenesis of human prolactin: importance of the 58-74 region for bioactivity.

We have added nine extra residues to the C-terminal of human prolactin and analysed the effect of this mutation on the ability of the hormone to bind to its lactogenic receptor and to induce Nb2 cell division. Both properties are markedly affected when compared to the natural 23-kDa human prolactin. Since no alteration of the global protein folding was detected either by circular dichroism or by infrared spectroscopy, the decrease in biological potency can be exclusively attributed to an effect of the nine additional residues on their near environment. From infrared analysis and secondary structure prediction, the elongated tail is assumed to be involved in a beta-sheet with a few residues initially belonging to the fourth helix. Moreover, from the X-ray structures of porcine and human growth hormones, two proteins homologous to prolactins, the nine extra residues are likely to fold within a concave pocket delimited by helices 1 and 4, and the second half of the loop connecting helices 1 and 2 (loop 1). Thereby, we suggest that the additional residues prevent some residues belonging to this pocket from interacting with the lactogenic receptor. This is in perfect agreement with our earlier proposal that the binding site of prolactin to the lactogenic receptor is homologous to that of growth hormone to the somatogenic receptor, i.e. essentially composed of residues belonging to this concave pocket.

https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1432-1033.1993.tb17945.x

The addition of nine residues at the C-terminus of human prolactin drastically alters its biological properties

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Alanine-scanning mutagenesis of human prolactin: importance of the 58-74 region for bioactivity.

The addition of nine residues at the C-terminus of human prolactin drastically alters its biological properties