Nucleoside transporters are important in transporting synthetic nucleoside drugs into their target cells where these drugs are metabolized and become cytotoxic. Nucleoside drugs are used in chemotherapy (eg. Ara C in leukemia) and as antiviral agents (eg. AZT in the treatment of AIDS). Pharmacologically, the Na independent nucleoside transport systems can be separated into the nitrobenzylthioinosine (NBMPR) sensitive (ES) and the NBMPR insensitive (EI) systems. NBMPR is an inhibitor of nucleoside transport. Recently, our laboratory cloned the human Na-independent Equilibrative Nucleoside Transporters (ENT1(encoding ES) and ENT2 (encoding EI)) and developed a Nucleoside Transporter Deficient cell line, PK15NTD cells. This will allow us to study the structure/function relationship of the nucleoside transporters and the structural determinants of nucleosides and nucleoside drugs as substrates of the nucleoside transporters. Through the knowledge of nucleoside transport at the molecular level, a long term goal is to facilitate the design of nucleoside analogue drugs for the treatment of diseases. In this application, we will characterize functionally and pharmacologically the cloned human ENT1 and ENT2 stably expressed in PK15NTD cells (Aim 1). Results obtained from the cloned proteins will be compared with the endogenous ES and EI transporters in human colonic cancer cell line, T84. Using kinetic studies, we will identify structural determinants of nucleosides for the transport by ENT1 and ENT2.
In Aim 2, we will study the structure/function relationship of ENT1 and ENT2. We will define the role of glycosylation in the function of ENT1 and ENT2 since glycosylation is important for nucleoside transport. Nucleoside transporter function is thiol-sensitive and the thiol sensitive group is exofacial in ENT2 but is cytoplasmic in ENT1. We propose to identify cysteine residues that confer thiol sensitivity of ENT1 and ENT2. ENT1 and ENT2 have a 3000 fold difference in sensitivity to NBMPR and an 8-10 fold difference in the affinity for guanosine and cytidine transport, ENT1/ENT2 chimeras will be constructed to identify the binding domain and substrate recognition domain in ENT1 and ENT2. Protein kinase C (PKC) inhibits the cloned ENT1 and ENT2 and endogenous ES and EI transporters in T84 cells. Experiments are proposed in the third aim to study the molecular mechanisms of how PKC inhibits ENT1 and ENT2. These proposed studies should provide insights into the molecular mechanisms and kinase regulation of nucleoside transport, and the structural determinants of nucleosides/nucleoside drugs for transport by the nucleoside transporters.
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