Novel Bioluminescent Binding Assays for Ligand–Receptor Interaction Studies of the Fibroblast Growth Factor Family

We recently developed novel bioluminescent binding assays for several protein/peptide hormones to study their interactions with receptors using the so far brightest NanoLuc reporter. To validate the novel bioluminescent binding assay using a variety of protein/peptide hormones, in the present work we applied it to the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family using the prototype member FGF2 as an example. A fully active recombinant FGF2 retaining a unique exposed cysteine (Cys) residue was chemically conjugated with an engineered NanoLuc carrying a unique exposed Cys residue at the C-terminus via formation of an intermolecular disulfide linkage. The NanoLuc-conjugated FGF2 (FGF2-Luc) retained high binding affinity to the overexpressed FGFR1 and the endogenous FGF receptor with the calculated dissociation constants of 161 ± 21 pM (n = 3) and 25 ± 4 pM (n = 3), respectively. In competition binding assays using FGF2-Luc as a tracer, receptor-binding potencies of wild-type or mutant FGF2s were accurately quantified. Thus, FGF2-Luc represents a novel non-radioactive tracer for the quantitative measurement of ligand–receptor interactions in the FGF family. These data suggest that the novel bioluminescent binding assay can be applied to a variety of protein/peptide hormones for ligand–receptor interaction studies.