Solute carriers (SLCs) constitute the largest family of membrane-bound transporter proteins in humans, and they convey transport of nutrients, ions, drugs and waste over cellular membranes via facilitative diffusion, co-transport or exchange. Several SLCs are associated with diseases and their location in membranes and specific substrate transport makes them excellent as drug targets. However, as 30 % of the 430 identified SLCs are still orphans, there are yet numerous opportunities to explain diseases and discover potential drug targets. Among the novel proteins are 29 atypical SLCs of major facilitator superfamily (MFS) type. These share evolutionary history with the remaining SLCs, but are orphans regarding expression, structure and/or function. They are not classified into any of the existing 52 SLC families. The overall aim in this thesis was to study the atypical SLCs with a focus on their phylogenetic clustering, evolutionary conservation, structure, protein expression in mouse brains and if and how their gene expressions were affected upon changed food intake. In Papers I-III, the focus was on specific proteins, MFSD5 and MFSD11 (Paper I), MFSD1 and MFSD3 (Paper II), and MFSD4A and MFSD9 (Paper III). They all shared neuronal expression, and their transcription levels were altered in several brain areas after subjecting mice to food deprivation or a high-fat diet. In Paper IV, the 29 atypical SLCs of MFS type were examined. They were divided into 15 families, based on phylogenetic analyses and sequence identities, to facilitate functional studies. Their sequence relationships with other SLCs were also established. Some of the proteins were found to be well conserved with orthologues down to nematodes and insects, whereas others emerged at first in vertebrates. The atypical SLCs of MFS type were predicted to have the common MFS structure, composed of 12 transmembrane segments. With single-cell RNA sequencing and in situ proximity ligation assay, co-expression of atypical SLCs was analysed to get a comprehensive understanding of how membrane-bound transporters interact.   In conclusion, the atypical SLCs of MFS type are suggested to be novel SLC transporters, involved in maintaining nutrient homeostasis through substrate transport.

BACKGROUND:Active HIV infection within the central nervous system (CNS) is confined primarily to microglia. The glial cell compartment acts as a viral reservoir behind the blood-brain barrier. It provides an additional roadblock to effective pharmacological treatment via expression of multiple drug efflux transporters, including P-glycoprotein. HIV/AIDS patients frequently suffer bacterial and viral co-infections, leading to deregulation of glial cell function and release of pro-inflammatory mediators including cytokines, chemokines, and nitric oxide.METHODS:To better define the role of inflammation in decreased HIV drug accumulation into CNS targets, accumulation of the antiretroviral saquinavir was examined in purified cultures of rodent microglia exposed to the prototypical inflammatory mediator lipopolysaccharide (LPS).RESULTS:3H]-Saquinavir accumulation by microglia was rapid, and was increased up to two-fold in the presence of the specific P-glycoprotein inhibitor, PSC833. After six or 24 hours of exposure to 10 ng/ml LPS, saquinavir accumulation was decreased by up to 45%. LPS did not directly inhibit saquinavir transport, and did not affect P-glycoprotein protein expression. LPS exposure did not alter RNA and/or protein expression of other transporters including multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 and several solute carrier uptake transporters.CONCLUSIONS:The decrease in saquinavir accumulation in microglia following treatment with LPS is likely multi-factorial, since drug accumulation was attenuated by inhibitors of NF-kappabeta and the MEK1/2 pathway in the microglia cell line HAPI, and in primary microglia cultures from toll-like receptor 4 deficient mice. These data provide new pharmacological insights into why microglia act as a difficult-to-treat viral sanctuary site.

Récemment, des études menées chez des patients atteints de la maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) suggèrent un rôle important de la clairance cérébrale des peptides bêta-amyloïde (Abeta) dans la physiopathologie de la MA. Les échanges de peptide Abeta entre le cerveau et le sang peuvent se faire à travers la barrière hémato-encéphalique (BHE). De nombreux transporteurs sont exprimés au niveau de la BHE, telles les protéines ABC (ATP-Binding Casette) et SLC (Solute Carriers). Il a été montré que l’influx du peptide Abeta à travers la BHE était partiellement médié par le récepteur RAGE (Receptor for Advanced Glycation End products) et son efflux par le récepteur LRP-1 (Low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1). De plus, l’implication de transporteurs ABC/SLC dans le passage cérébral du peptide Abeta a été suggérée. Il paraît donc important de caractériser les transporteurs ABC et/ou SLC impliqués dans le transport du peptide Abeta à travers la BHE. D’autre part, l’on peut se demander si, dans le cadre de la MA, la BHE subit des modifications, en termes d’étanchéité, d’expression de transporteurs, de mécanismes de transport, et si, dans ce cas, il y a une modification du transport du peptide Abeta à travers la BHE altérée. Nous avons d’abord montré que des transporteurs ABC et SLC étaient respectivement impliqués dans l’efflux et l’influx des peptides Abeta à travers la BHE. Concernant l’efflux, outre l’Abcb1, nous avons montré qu’Abcg2 et Abcg4 étaient impliquées dans la clairance cérébrale des peptides Abeta. Concernant l’influx, nous avons montré qu’Oatp1a4 pourrait jouer un rôle important dans la pénétration cérébrale des peptides Abeta. De plus, Abca1, principal transporteur ABC impliqué dans le transport du cholestérol, régule indirectement les taux cérébraux d’Abeta. En particulier, nous avons identifié la L-thyroxine et la rosuvastatine comme de puissants inhibiteurs respectifs de l’efflux et de l’influx cérébral d’Abeta. L’ensemble de ces transporteurs d’influx et d’efflux fixe ainsi la clairance cérébrale des peptides Abeta à travers la BHE. Or ces transporteurs sont régulés chez les souris 3xTg-AD (modèle de souris triple transgénique pour la MA exprimant à la fois les pathologies amyloïde et tau), dans des phases précoces et/ou tardives de la MA. Précocement, l’expression de Rage et d’Abca1 sont fortement augmentées au niveau de la BHE chez les souris 3xTg-AD. L’augmentation de Rage dès l’âge de 3 mois laisse supposer une augmentation très précoce de l’influx du peptide Abeta à travers la BHE. Mais cet influx semble être contre-balancé par l’augmentation concomitante d’Abcg4. Quant à Abca1, ne transportant pas directement le peptide Abeta, le rôle de son augmentation graduelle au cours du développement de la MA reste à déterminer. L’ensemble de ces régulations n’étant pas suffisantes pour empêcher l’accumulation cérébrale d’Abeta, des régulations plus tardives semblent se mettre en place, avec notamment l’augmentation de l’expression d’Abcb1 et d’Abcg2, et la diminution d’Oatp1a4. Ces mécanismes semblent donc correspondre à des phénomènes compensatoires ayant pour objectif d’augmenter la clairance cérébrale d’Abeta. Enfin, nous avons montré que l’intégrité physique de la BHE n’était pas altérée chez ces souris 3xTg-AD âgées de 3 à 18 mois. De plus, nos résultats ont montré que le volume vasculaire était diminué de manière précoce, notamment au niveau de l’hippocampe, chez les souris 3xTg-AD par rapport à leurs contrôles. Ce phénomène n’a pas été retrouvé chez les souris APP/PS1 n’exprimant que la pathologie amyloïde. Ces résultats suggèrent un rôle causal et précoce de la protéine tau hyperphosphorylée dans la pathologie de la MA. En conclusion, nos résultats soulignent l’importance de la BHE dans la physiopathologie de la MA. Ce travail de thèse ouvre des perspectives thérapeutiques, mais aussi des pistes pour la compréhension des mécanismes conduisant à une régulation de ces systèmes de transport dans la MA. / Recent studies in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients have suggested an important role of cerebral clearance of Abeta peptide in the pathogenesis of AD. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) represents a major pathway for exchanges of Abeta between the brain and the peripheral circulation. Many transporters are expressed at the BBB, such as the ABC (ATP-Binding Casette) and SLC (Solute Carriers) proteins. It has been shown that the influx of Abeta peptide across the BBB was partially mediated by the receptor RAGE (Receptor for Advanced Glycation End products) and its efflux by the LRP-1 receptor (low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1). On the other hand, the involvement of ABC/SLC transporters in the brain efflux/influx of Abeta peptide has been suggested. It was therefore important to characterize the ABC/SLC transporters involved in the transport of Abeta peptide across the BBB. In addition, the disorders of the BBB have always been suggested in neurodegenerative diseases. The question is whether, in the context of AD, the BBB undergoes changes in terms of integrity, expression of transporters, transport mechanisms, and if, in this case, there is a change in the transport of Abeta peptide across the impaired BBB. We first showed that the BBB regulated the exchange of blood-brain Abeta peptides. Thus, the involvement of efflux (ABCG2 and ABCG4) and influx (Oatp1a4) transporters allows this equilibrium of Abeta peptides between the blood and the brain parenchyma. In addition, ABCA1, the main ABC transporter involved in cholesterol transport, regulates indirectly the brain levels of Abeta. We also identified the L-thyroxine and rosuvastatin as potent inhibitors of the efflux and influx transport of brain Abeta, respectively. All these influx and efflux transporters could control the transport of Abeta peptide across the BBB. However, these transporters are regulated in 3xTg-AD mice (triple transgenic mouse model for AD expressing both amyloid and tau pathologies) in the early and/or late stages of AD. Early, the expression of Abca1 and Rage are strongly increased at the BBB in 3xTg-AD mice. The high expression levels of Rage at the age of 3 months suggest an early increase in the influx transport of Abeta peptide across the BBB. But this increase seems to be compensated by the concomitant increase of Abcg4. As Abca1 does not directly mediate the transport of Abeta peptide, the role of its gradual increase in the development of AD remains to be determined. As all these regulations are not sufficient to prevent the accumulation of cerebral Abeta, the late regulations seem to develop, including increased expression of Abcb1 and Abcg2, and decreased expression of Oatp1a4. These mechanisms seem to correspond to compensatory phenomena with the objective to increase the cerebral clearance of Abeta. Finally, we have shown that the physical integrity of the BBB was not altered in 3xTg-AD mice aging from 3 to18 months. In addition, our results showed that the cerebral vascular volume was reduced early, especially in the hippocampus of 3xTg-AD mice compared to their age-matched controls. This phenomenon was not found in APP/PS1 mice expressing only the amyloid pathology. These results suggest a causal and early role of hyperphosphorylated tau in AD pathology.In conclusion, our results show the importance of the BBB and particularly of Abcg2, Abcg4 and Oatp1a4 transporters in the pathophysiology of AD. Knowledge of these transporters not only opens up therapeutic or prophylactic purposes, but also leads to the further understanding of the regulation mechanisms of these transport systems in AD.

No description available.

Drug transport across cells and cell membranes in the human body is crucial for the pharmacological effect of drugs. Active transport governed by transport proteins plays an important role in this process. A vast number of transport proteins with a wide tissue distribution have been identified during the last 15 years. Several important examples of their role in drug disposition and drug-drug interactions have been described to date. Investigation of drug-drug interactions at the transport protein level are therefore of increasing interest to the academic, industrial and regulatory research communities. The gene expression of transport proteins involved in drug transport was investigated in the jejunum, liver, kidney and colon to better understand their influence on the ADMET properties of drugs. In addition, the gene and protein expression of transport proteins in cell lines, widely used for predictions of drug transport and metabolism, was examined. The substrate and inhibitor heterogeneity of many transport proteins makes it difficult to foresee whether the transport proteins will cause drug-drug interactions. Therefore, in vitro assays for OCT1 and OATP1B1, among the highest expressed transport proteins in human liver, were developed to allow investigation of the inhibitory patterns of these proteins. These assays were used to investigate two data sets, consisting of 191 and 135 registered drugs and drug-like molecules for the inhibition of OCT1 and OATP1B1, respectively. Numerous new inhibitors of the transport proteins were identified in the data sets and the properties governing inhibition were determined. Further, antidepressant drugs and statins displayed strong inhibition of OCT1 and OATP1B1, respectively. The inhibition data was used to develop predictive in silico models for each of the two transport proteins. The highly polymorphic nature of some transport proteins has been shown to affect drug response and may lead to an increased risk of drug-drug interactions, and therefore, the OCT1 in vitro assay was used to study the effect of common genetic variants of OCT1 on drug inhibition and drug-drug interactions. The results indicated that OCT1 variants with reduced function were more susceptible to inhibition. Further, a drug-drug interaction of potential clinical significance in the genetic OCT1 variant M420del was proposed. In summary, gene expression of transport proteins was investigated in human tissues and cell lines. In vitro assays for two of the highest expressed liver transport proteins were used to identify previously unknown SLC transport protein inhibitors and to develop predictive in silico models, which may detect previously known drug-drug interactions and enable new ones to be identified at the transport protein level. In addition, the effect of genetic variation on inhibition of the OCT1 was investigated.

This work is concerned with the genetic basis of normal human pigmentation variation. Specifically, the role of polymorphisms within the solute carrier family 45 member 2 (SLC45A2 or membrane associated transporter protein; MATP) gene were investigated with respect to variation in hair, skin and eye colour ― both between and within populations. SLC45A2 is an important regulator of melanin production and mutations in the gene underly the most recently identified form of oculocutaneous albinism. There is evidence to suggest that non-synonymous polymorphisms in SLC45A2 are associated with normal pigmentation variation between populations. Therefore, the underlying hypothesis of this thesis is that polymorphisms in SLC45A2 will alter the function or regulation of the protein, thereby altering the important role it plays in melanogenesis and providing a mechanism for normal pigmentation variation. In order to investigate the role that SLC45A2 polymorphisms play in human pigmentation variation, a DNA database was established which collected pigmentation phenotypic information and blood samples of more than 700 individuals. This database was used as the foundation for two association studies outlined in this thesis, the first of which involved genotyping two previously-described non-synonymous polymorphisms, p.Glu272Lys and p.Phe374Leu, in four different population groups. For both polymorphisms, allele frequencies were significantly different between population groups and the 272Lys and 374Leu alleles were strongly associated with black hair, brown eyes and olive skin colour in Caucasians. This was the first report to show that SLC45A2 polymorphisms were associated with normal human intra-population pigmentation variation. The second association study involved genotyping several SLC45A2 promoter polymorphisms to determine if they also played a role in pigmentation variation. Firstly, the transcription start site (TSS), and hence putative proximal promoter region, was identified using 5' RNA ligase mediated rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RLM-RACE). Two alternate TSSs were identified and the putative promoter region was screened for novel polymorphisms using denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (dHPLC). A novel duplication (c.–1176_–1174dupAAT) was identified along with other previously described single nucleotide polymorphisms (c.–1721C>G and c.–1169G>A). Strong linkage disequilibrium ensured that all three polymorphisms were associated with skin colour such that the –1721G, +dup and –1169A alleles were associated with olive skin in Caucasians. No linkage disequilibrium was observed between the promoter and coding region polymorphisms, suggesting independent effects. The association analyses were complemented with functional data, showing that the –1721G, +dup and –1169A alleles significantly decreased SLC45A2 transcriptional activity. Based on in silico bioinformatic analysis that showed these alleles remove a microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) binding site, and that MITF is a known regulator of SLC45A2 (Baxter and Pavan, 2002; Du and Fisher, 2002), it was postulated that SLC45A2 promoter polymorphisms could contribute to the regulation of pigmentation by altering MITF binding affinity. Further characterisation of the SLC45A2 promoter was carried out using luciferase reporter assays to determine the transcriptional activity of different regions of the promoter. Five constructs were designed of increasing length and their promoter activity evaluated. Constitutive promoter activity was observed within the first ~200 bp and promoter activity increased as the construct size increased. The functional impact of the –1721G, +dup and –1169A alleles, which removed a MITF consensus binding site, were assessed using electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) and expression analysis of genotyped melanoblast and melanocyte cell lines. EMSA results confirmed that the promoter polymorphisms affected DNA-protein binding. Interestingly, however, the protein/s involved were not MITF, or at least MITF was not the protein directly binding to the DNA. In an effort to more thoroughly characterise the functional consequences of SLC45A2 promoter polymorphisms, the mRNA expression levels of SLC45A2 and MITF were determined in melanocyte/melanoblast cell lines. Based on SLC45A2’s role in processing and trafficking TYRP1 from the trans-Golgi network to stage 2 melanosmes, the mRNA expression of TYRP1 was also investigated. Expression results suggested a coordinated expression of pigmentation genes. This thesis has substantially contributed to the field of pigmentation by showing that SLC45A2 polymorphisms not only show allele frequency differences between population groups, but also contribute to normal pigmentation variation within a Caucasian population. In addition, promoter polymorphisms have been shown to have functional consequences for SLC45A2 transcription and the expression of other pigmentation genes. Combined, the data presented in this work supports the notion that SLC45A2 is an important contributor to normal pigmentation variation and should be the target of further research to elucidate its role in determining pigmentation phenotypes. Understanding SLC45A2’s function may lead to the development of therapeutic interventions for oculocutaneous albinism and other disorders of pigmentation. It may also help in our understanding of skin cancer susceptibility and evolutionary adaptation to different UV environments, and contribute to the forensic application of pigmentation phenotype prediction.

No description available.

No description available.

The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) regulates nutrient uptake, secretes hormones and has a crucial gut flora and enteric nervous system. Of relevance for these functions are the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and the solute carriers (SLCs). The Adhesion GPCR subfamily is known to mediate neural development and immune system functioning, whereas SLCs transport e.g. amino acids, fatty acids (FAs) and drugs over membranes. We aimed to comprehensively characterize Adhesion GPCR and SLC gene expression along the rat GIT. Using qPCR we measured expression of 78 SLCs as well as all 30 Adhesion GPCRs in a twelve-segment GIT model. 21 of the Adhesion GPCRs had a widespread (≥5 segments) or ubiquitous (≥11 segments) expression. Restricted expression patterns were characteristic for most group VII members. Of the SLCs, we found the majority (56 %) of these transcripts to be expressed in all GIT segments. SLCs were predominantly found in the absorption-responsible gut regions. Both Adhesion GPCRs and SLCs were widely expressed in the rat GIT, suggesting important roles. The distribution of Adhesion GPCRs defines them as a potential pharmacological target. FAs constitute an important energy source and have been implicated in the worldwide obesity increase. FAs and their ratios – indices for activities of e.g. the desaturase enzymes SCD-1 (SCD-16, 16:1n-7/16:0), D6D (18:3n-6/18:2n-6) and D5D (20:4n-6/20:3n-6) – have been associated with e.g. overall mortality and BMI. We examined whether differences in FAs and their indices in five lipid fractions contributed to obesity susceptibility in rats fed a high fat diet (HFD), and the associations of desaturase indices between lipid fractions in animals on different diets. We found that on a HFD, obesity-prone (OP) rats had a higher SCD-16 index and a lower linoleic acid (LA) proportions in subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) than obesity-resistant rats. Desaturase indices were significantly correlated between many of the lipid fractions. The higher SCD-16 may indicate higher SCD-1 activity in SAT in OP rats, and combined with lower LA proportions may provide novel insights into HFD-induced obesity. The associations between desaturase indices show that plasma measurements can serve as proxies for some lipid fractions, but the correlations seem to be affected by diet and weight gain.