Photoreleasable ligands to study intracrine angiotensin II signalling

Several lines of evidence suggest that intracellular angiotensin II (Ang-II) contributes to the regulation of cardiac contractility, renal salt reabsorption, vascular tone and metabolism; however, work on intracrine Ang-II signalling has been limited to indirect approaches because of a lack of selective intracellularly-acting probes. Here, we aimed to synthesize and characterize cell-permeant Ang-II analogues that are inactive without uncaging, but release active Ang-II upon exposure to a flash of UV-light, and act as novel tools for use in the study of intracrine Ang-II physiology. We prepared three novel caged Ang-II analogues, [Tyr(DMNB)4]Ang-II, Ang-II-ODMNB and [Tyr(DMNB)4]Ang-II-ODMNB, based upon the incorporation of the photolabile moiety 4,5-dimethoxy-2-nitrobenzyl (DMNB). Compared to Ang-II, the caged Ang-II analogues showed 2–3 orders of magnitude reduced affinity toward both angiotensin type-1 (AT1R) and type-2 (AT2R) receptors in competition binding assays, and greatly-reduced potency in contraction assays of rat thoracic aorta. After receiving UV-irradiation, all three caged Ang-II analogues released Ang-II and potently induced the contraction of rat thoracic aorta. [Tyr(DMNB)4]Ang-II showed the most rapid photolysis upon UV-irradiation and was the focus of subsequent characterization. Whereas Ang-II and photolysed [Tyr(DMNB)4]Ang-II increased ERK1/2 phosphorylation (via AT1R) and cGMP production (AT2R), caged [Tyr(DMNB)4]Ang-II did not. Cellular uptake of [Tyr(DMNB)4]Ang-II was 4-fold greater than that of Ang-II and significantly greater than uptake driven by the positive-control HIV TAT(48–60) peptide. Intracellular photolysis of [Tyr(DMNB)4]Ang-II induced an increase in nucleoplasmic Ca2+ ([Ca2+]n), and initiated 18S rRNA and nuclear factor kappa B mRNA synthesis in adult cardiac cells. We conclude that caged Ang-II analogues represent powerful new tools for use in the selective study of intracrine signalling via Ang-II.