Homology Modelling of Chemerin like Receptor-1 (CMKLR1) : Potential Target for Treating Type II Diabetes

Abstract

Chemerin receptor, which predominantly expressed in immune cells as well as adipose tissue, was found to stimulate chemotaxis of dendritic cells and macrophages to the site of inflammation. Chemerin is a widely distributed multifunctional secreted protein implicated in immune cell migration, adipogenesis, osteoblastogenesis, angiogenesis, myogenesis, and glucose homeostasis. Recent studies suggest chemerin may play an important role in the pathogenesis of obesity and insulin resistance and it becomes a potential therapeutic target for treating type II diabetes. The crystal structure of chemerin receptor has not yet been resolved. Therefore, in the present study, homology modelling of CMKLR1 was done utilizing the crystal structure of human angiotension receptor in complex with inverse agonist olmesartan as the template. Since the template has low sequence identity, we have incorporated both threading and comparative modelling approach to generate the three dimensional structure. 3D models were generated and validated. The reported models can be used to characterize the critical amino acid residues in the binding site of CMKLR1