Alternative splicing of a receptor intracellular domain yields different ectodomain conformations, enabling isoform-selective functional ligands

Summary Events at a receptor ectodomain affect the intracellular domain conformation, activating signal transduction (out–to–in conformational effects). We investigated the reverse direction (in–to–out) where the intracellular domain may impact on ectodomain conformation. The primary sequences of naturally occurring TrkC receptor isoforms (TrkC-FL and TrkC.T1) only differ at the intracellular domain. However, due to their differential association with Protein Disulfide Isomerase the isoforms have different disulfide-bonding and conformations at the ectodomain. Conformations were exploited to develop artificial ligands, mAbs and small molecules, with isoform–specific binding and biased activation. Consistent, the physiological ligands NT-3 and PTP-sigma bind both isoforms, but NT-3 activates all signalling pathways while PTP-sigma activates biased signals. Our data support an “in–to–out” model controlling receptor ectodomain conformation, a strategy that enables heterogeneity in receptors, ligands, and bioactivity. These concepts may be extended to the many wild type or oncogenic receptors with known isoforms.