How sensor Amt-like proteins integrate ammonium signals.

Unlike aquaporins or potassium channels, ammonium transporters (Amts) uniquely discriminate ammonium from potassium and water. This feature has certainly contributed to their repurposing as ammonium receptors during evolution. Here, we describe the ammonium receptor Sd-Amt1, where an Amt module connects to a cytoplasmic diguanylate cyclase transducer module via an HAMP domain. Structures of the protein with and without bound ammonium were determined to 1.7- and 1.9-Ångstrom resolution, depicting the ON and OFF states of the receptor and confirming the presence of a binding site for two ammonium cations that is pivotal for signal perception and receptor activation. The transducer domain was disordered in the crystals, and an AlphaFold2 prediction suggests that the helices linking both domains are flexible. While the sensor domain retains the trimeric fold formed by all Amt family members, the HAMP domains interact as pairs and serve to dimerize the transducer domain upon activation.

Renal human organic anion transporter 3 increases the susceptibility of lymphoma cells to bendamustine uptake.

Chronic lymphatic leukemia (CLL) is often associated with nephritic syndrome. Effective treatment of CLL by chlorambucil and bendamustine leads to the restoration of renal function. In this contribution, we sought to elucidate the impact of organic anion transporters (OATs) on the uptake of bendamustine and chlorambucil as a probable reason for the superior efficacy of bendamustine over chlorambucil in the treatment of CLL. We examined the effects of structural analogs of p-aminohippurate (PAH), melphalan, chlorambucil, and bendamustine, on OAT1-mediated [(3)H]PAH uptake and OAT3- and OAT4-mediated [(3)H]estrone sulfate (ES) uptake in stably transfected human embryonic kidney-293 cells. Melphalan had no significant inhibitory effect on any OAT, whereas chlorambucil reduced OAT1-, OAT3-, and OAT4-mediated uptake of PAH or ES down to 14.6%, 16.3%, and 66.0% of control, respectively. Bendamustine inhibited only OAT3-mediated ES uptake, which was reduced down to 14.3% of control cells, suggesting that it interacts exclusively with OAT3. The IC50 value for OAT3 was calculated to be 0.8 µM. Real-time PCR experiments demonstrated a high expression of OAT3 in lymphoma cell lines as well as primary CLL cells. OAT3-mediated accumulation of bendamustine was associated with reduced cell proliferation and an increased rate of apoptosis. We conclude that the high efficacy of bendamustine in treating CLL might be partly contributed to the expression of OAT3 in lymphoma cells and the high affinity of bendamustine for this transporter.

A substrate access tunnel in the cytosolic domain is not an essential feature of the solute carrier 4 (SLC4) family of bicarbonate transporters.

Anion exchanger 1 (AE1; Band 3; SLC4A1) is the founding member of the solute carrier 4 (SLC4) family of bicarbonate transporters that includes chloride/bicarbonate AEs and Na(+)-bicarbonate co-transporters (NBCs). These membrane proteins consist of an amino-terminal cytosolic domain involved in protein interactions and a carboxyl-terminal membrane domain that carries out the transport function. Mutation of a conserved arginine residue (R298S) in the cytosolic domain of NBCe1 (SLC4A4) is linked to proximal renal tubular acidosis and results in impaired transport function, suggesting that the cytosolic domain plays a role in substrate permeation. Introduction of single and double mutations at the equivalent arginine (Arg(283)) and at an interacting glutamate (Glu(85)) in the cytosolic domain of human AE1 (cdAE1) had no effect on the cell surface expression or the transport activity of AE1 expressed in HEK-293 cells. In addition, the membrane domain of AE1 (mdAE1) efficiently mediated anion transport. A 2.1-Å resolution crystal structure of cdΔ54AE1 (residues 55-356 of cdAE1) lacking the amino-terminal and carboxyl-terminal disordered regions, produced at physiological pH, revealed an extensive hydrogen-bonded network involving Arg(283) and Glu(85). Mutations at these residues affected the pH-dependent conformational changes and stability of cdΔ54AE1. As these structural alterations did not impair functional expression of AE1, the cytosolic and membrane domains operate independently. A substrate access tunnel within the cytosolic domain is not present in AE1 and therefore is not an essential feature of the SLC4 family of bicarbonate transporters.

Expression of human organic cation transporter 3 in kidney carcinoma cell lines increases chemosensitivity to melphalan, irinotecan, and vincristine.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is usually chemoresistant. This chemoresistance could be overcome if specific cytostatics are applied for which the RCC expresses an uptake transporter. In the present study, we investigated the expression of solute carrier (SLC) transporters in different RCC lines and their ability to interact with chemotherapeutics. We tested five RCC lines for the expression of different SLCs by reverse transcription-PCR and TaqMan real-time PCR. In two of five RCC lines, A498 and 7860, we observed a highly significant expression of SLC22A3 (hOCT3). Uptake of the organic cation [(3)H]MPP (4-methyl-pyridinium iodide) into these cells and also into hOCT3 stably transfected Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells was inhibited by irinotecan, vincristine, and melphalan. The K(i) values [determined from Dixon plots] for irinotecan, vincristine, and melphalan were 1.72 +/- 0.45 micromol/L, 17 +/- 4.81 micromol/L, and 366 +/- 51 micromol/L, respectively. Cytotoxic activities of the selected drugs were tested by [(3)H]thymidine incorporation and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assays on CHO-hOCT3, A498 (high expression of hOCT3), and ACHN cell lines (low expression of hOCT3). The growth of CHO-hOCT3 was inhibited by 20% more with irinotecan and by 50% more with vincristine compared with nontransfected CHO cells. Melphalan produced 20% to 30% more inhibition in hOCT3-expressing cells compared with nonexpressing control cells. Similar results were obtained for A498 and ACHN cells. Thus, our data support the hypothesis that the sensitivity of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic treatment depends on the expression of transporter proteins mediating specific drug accumulation into target cells.