Open Access

Genome-wide association studies have identified an association between isobutyrylcarnitine (IBC) and organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1) genotypes. Higher IBC blood concentrations in humans with active OCT1 genotypes and experimental studies with mouse OCT1 suggested an OCT1-mediated efflux of IBC. In this study, we wanted to confirm the suggested use of IBC as an endogenous biomarker of OCT1 activity and contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms behind the association between blood concentrations of carnitine derivatives and OCT1 genotype. Blood and urine IBC concentrations were quantified in healthy volunteers regarding intra- and interindividual variation and correlation with OCT1 genotype and with pharmacokinetics of known OCT1 substrates. Furthermore, IBC formation and transport were studied in cell lines overexpressing OCT1 and its naturally occurring variants. Carriers of high-activity OCT1 genotypes had about 3-fold higher IBC blood concentrations and 2-fold higher amounts of IBC excreted in urine compared to deficient OCT1. This was likely due to OCT1 function, as indicated by the fact that IBC correlated with the pharmacokinetics of known OCT1 substrates, like fenoterol, and blood IBC concentrations declined with a 1 h time delay following peak concentrations of the OCT1 substrate sumatriptan. Thus, IBC is a suitable endogenous biomarker reflecting both, human OCT1 (hOCT1) genotype and activity. While murine OCT1 (mOCT1) was an efflux transporter of IBC, hOCT1 exhibited no IBC efflux activity. Inhibition experiments confirmed this data showing that IBC and other acylcarnitines, like butyrylcarnitine, 2-methylbutyrylcarnitine, and hexanoylcarnitine, showed reduced efflux upon inhibition of mOCT1 but not of hOCT1. IBC and other carnitine derivatives are endogenous biomarkers of hOCT1 genotype and phenotype. However, in contrast to mice, the mechanisms underlying the IBC-OCT1 correlation in humans is apparently not directly the OCT1-mediated efflux of IBC. A plausible explanation could be that hOCT1 mediates cellular concentrations of specific regulators or co-substrates in lipid and energy metabolism, which is supported by our in vitro finding that at baseline intracellular IBC concentration is about 6-fold lower alone by OCT1 overexpression.

Intestinal transporter proteins are known to affect the pharmacokinetics and in turn the efficacy and safety of many orally administered drugs in a clinically relevant manner. This knowledge is especially well-established for intestinal ATP-binding cassette transporters such as P-gp and BCRP. In contrast to this, information about intestinal uptake carriers is much more limited although many hydrophilic or ionic drugs are not expected to undergo passive diffusion but probably require specific uptake transporters. A transporter which is controversially discussed with respect to its expression, localization and function in the human intestine is the organic cation transporter 1 (OCT1). This review article provides an up-to-date summary on the available data from expression analysis as well as functional studies in vitro, animal findings and clinical observations. The current evidence suggests that OCT1 is expressed in the human intestine in small amounts (on gene and protein levels), while its cellular localization in the apical or basolateral membrane of the enterocytes remains to be finally defined, but functional data point to a secretory function of the transporter at the basolateral membrane. Thus, OCT1 should not be considered as a classical uptake transporter in the intestine but rather as an intestinal elimination pathway for cationic compounds from the systemic circulation.

Das Glioblastoma multiforme zählt bis heute trotz multimodaler Therapieansätze zu den prognostisch ungünstigsten malignen Neoplasien des Menschen. Ein mittleres Überleben von etwa 15 Monaten unter der derzeitigen Standardtherapie konnte trotz intensiver Forschung bislang nicht wesentlich gesteigert werden. Die hohe Proliferationsrate und das ausgeprägte infiltrative Wachstum sowie die fehlende Radio- und Chemosensitivität dieser Tumorentität limitieren bis dato die therapeutischen Optionen. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist die Etablierung alternativer Therapieansätze eine vordringliche Forschungsaufgabe. In Glioblastomen konnte eine erhöhte Expression von Komponenten der Endothelin-Achse sowie der Cystein-Protease Cathepsin B nachgewiesen werden. In anderen malignen Neoplasien wie dem Kolon-, Mamma- oder Prostatakarzinom vermochte die Hemmung dieser Hormone/Enzyme die proliferative und migratorische Aktivität der Tumorzellen zu vermindern, wobei gewebespezifische Differenzen sowie Ambivalenzen der Inhibitionsresultate zu beobachten waren. In dieser Dissertation sollte unter in vitro-Bedingungen das Expressionsverhalten der Glioblastomzelllinien LN 18 und U 87 MG hinsichtlich obig genannter Systeme sowie der Einfluss einer dualen Blockade der Endothelin-Rezeptoren A und B durch Bosentan bzw. der selektiven Inhibition von Cathepsin B durch CA-074 Me auf die zelluläre Proliferation und Migration untersucht werden. Mittels quantitativer RT-PCR konnte in beiden Zelllinien – verglichen mit gesundem Hirngewebe – eine erhöhte mRNA-Expression sowohl der Endothelin-Achse als auch von Cathepsin B nachgewiesen werden. Die Western-Blot- und ELISA-Untersuchungen bestätigten eine erhöhte Expression von Endothelin-1, dem ETAR und dem ETBR sowie von Cathepsin B in beiden Zelltypen. Im Weiteren wurde der Einfluss der Inhibitoren Bosentan und CA-074 Me auf die Proliferation der beiden Zelllinien im Resazurin- und Kristallviolett-Assay sowie auf die Migration im xCelligenceTM-System und im Wundheilungs-Assay untersucht. Ein signifikanter Einfluss von Bosentan konnte in den durchgeführten Experimenten in beiden Zelllinien weder für die Proliferation noch die Migration nachgewiesen werden. Für CA-074 Me zeigte sich jedoch in einer Konzentration von 10 µM ein hemmender Einfluss auf die Zellviabilität sowie die Migration der Zelllinien LN 18 und U 87 MG. Längere Inkubationszeiten und höhere Konzentrationen der verwendeten Inhibitoren, wie in der Fachliteratur beschrieben, sollten in weiterführenden Analysen in die Experimente eingeschlossen werden. Die ebenfalls in die Untersuchungen eingeschlossenen Zytostatika Doxorubicin, Teniposid und Vincristin bewirkten eine signifikante Reduktion der Zellviabilität beider Glioblastomzelllinien, während Carmustin, Lomustin und Temozolomid kaum Einfluss auf diese Zellen nahmen. Weder Bosentan noch CA 074 Me führten dabei zu einer signifikanten Modulation der Zytostatika-Wirkungen. Alle untersuchten Zytostatika verursachten zudem eine verminderte Migration der Glioblastomzellen in vitro, jedoch war das Ausmaß dieser Migrationshemmung sehr unterschiedlich. Auch hier konnte kein Einfluss von Bosentan oder CA 074 Me auf die durch die Zytostatika verursachte Hemmung der Zellmigration beobachtet werden. Die Komplexität und Multifunktionalität beider Hormon-/Enzymsysteme innerhalb verschiedener Zellkompartimente und Gewebetypen machen weitere Untersuchungen in vitro und in vivo notwendig, um das Potenzial beider Systeme für einen gezielten Einsatz in der Tumortherapie bzw. der Behandlung des Glioblastoms vollends zu klären. Zudem muss berücksichtigt werden, dass bei Verwendung pharmakologischer Hemmstoffe unspezifische bzw. pleiotrope Effekte nicht gänzlich ausgeschlossen werden können, weshalb weiterführende Analysen mit gezielter, genetischer Ausschaltung der Zielgene, beispielsweise mittels siRNA oder CRISPR/Cas9-Technologie, sinnvoll erscheinen.

Organic cation transporter OCT1 is strongly expressed in the sinusoidal membrane of hepatocytes. OCT1 mediates the uptake of weakly basic and cationic compounds from the blood into the liver and may thereby facilitate the first step in hepatic metabolism or excretion of many cationic drugs. OCT1 is a polyspecific transporter and has a very broad spectrum of structurally highly diverse ligands (substrates and inhibitors). The exact transport mechanism and the amino acids involved in polyspecific ligand binding of OCT1 are poorly understood. The aim of this work was to utilize the polyspecificity to better understand the structure-function relationships of OCT1 and to gain first insights into potential mechanisms conferring the polyspecificity. We followed two strategies, analyzing the effects of variability in both ligand and transporter structure on OCT1 function. The effects of ligand structure were analyzed by comparing uptake and inhibitory potencies of structurally similar drugs of the group of opioids. The effects of transporter structure were analyzed by comparing the effects of variability caused by naturally occurring genetic variants or artificial mutations on OCT1 uptake and inhibition of several substrates. Most importantly, the effects of interspecies variability in transporter structure were analyzed by comparing uptake kinetics between human and mouse OCT1 orthologs. To this end, we used stably or transiently transfected HEK293 cells overexpressing OCT1 and different chimeric and mutant variants thereof. Focusing on OCT1 ligands, we compared the uptake and inhibitory potencies of structurally similar opioids. Only minor changes of the ligand structure strongly affected the interaction with OCT1. The presence of the ether linkage between C4 and C5 of the morphinan ring was associated with reduced OCT1 inhibitory potencies, while passive membrane permeability was the major negative determinant of OCT1-mediated uptake among structurally highly similar morphinan opioids. Only minor structural changes strongly increased the inhibitory potency by 28-fold from the lowest IC50 of 2004 µM for oxycodone to 72 µM for morphine. Additional removal of the ether linkage between C4-C5 increased the inhibitory potency by a total of 313-fold to the lowest IC50 of 6 µM for dextrorphan. Consequently, our data demonstrates that despite its polyspecificity, OCT1-mediated uptake and inhibition of this uptake is still somewhat very specific. Focusing on OCT1 protein structure, we first analyzed the effects of variability caused by naturally occurring genetic variants on OCT1 uptake and inhibition. OCT1 transport was strongly affected by OCT1 genetic variants and these effects were often substrate-specific. Correlation of these effects revealed several substrates that were similarly affected by the variants and may therefore be suggested to share similar or overlapping binding sites in OCT1. In addition, the effects of the genetic variants OCT1*2 and OCT1*3 on different substrates correlated well which may suggest that the structural variability caused by these two variants similarly affects substrate uptake. OCT1 genetic variants also affected the inhibition of OCT1, with both substrate and genotype-specific differences. Ranitidine inhibited the uptake of several substrates, among them the clinically relevant drugs metformin and morphine. Moreover, the inhibition was more potent (about 2-fold) on the uptake mediated by the common genetic variant OCT1*2 than on the uptake mediated by the reference OCT1*1. Second, we analyzed the effects of artificial mutations of key amino acids. Tyr222 and Asp475 in rat OCT1 had strongly substrate-specific and also species-specific effects on both OCT1-mediated uptake and inhibition. Mutation of these amino acids strongly decreased OCT1-mediated uptake, which further underscored an important role especially of Asp475. Interestingly, despite a proposed essential role of this amino acid, we observed Asp475-independent transport. This transport was observed in mouse, but not in human OCT1 and was substrate-specific. TMH10 was identified to be involved in determining the Asp475-independent uptake of mouse OCT1. Finally and most importantly, we analyzed the effects of sequence differences between human and mouse OCT1 on the transport kinetics of several OCT1 substrates. The transport kinetics differed strongly between human and mouse OCT1 orthologs. These differences were substrate-specific and affected both the affinity (KM) and capacity (vmax) of transport. Human OCT1 had an 8-fold higher capacity of trospium transport, while mouse OCT1 had an 8-fold higher capacity of fenoterol transport. Furthermore, mouse OCT1 had a 5-fold higher affinity for metformin transport compared to human OCT1. The difference between Phe32 in human and Leu32 in mouse OCT1 in TMH1 was identified to confer a higher capacity of transport by human compared to mouse OCT1, while the difference between Cys36 in human and Tyr36 in mouse OCT1 in TMH1 was identified to confer a higher capacity of transport by mouse compared to human OCT1. Furthermore, Leu155 in human OCT1, corresponding to Val156 in mouse OCT1 in TMH2, in concert with TMH3 were identified to confer the differences in affinity for metformin transport between the species. It may be speculated that ligand binding in OCT1 involves a core binding region that includes Asp474/475 and that polyspecific ligand binding is enabled by providing further binding partners (different amino acids) in more peripheral regions that different ligands can selectively interact with. This mechanism may also be a first step in explaining the substrate-specific effects of genetic variants with clinical relevance. Based on our findings, these “polyspecificity regions” may include TMH1, TMH2, and TMH3. Further analyses are warranted to characterize and narrow down these regions to unravel the structure-function relationships and with that the polyspecificity of OCT1. To summarize, variability in both ligand and transporter structure strongly affected OCT1 function and we were able to identify ligand structures that affect inhibitory potency and protein structures that confer species-specific differences in OCT1 transport. This work emphasizes again the complexity of OCT1 transport and structure-function relationships. We also showed that, in spite of the difficulties for experimental analysis and data interpretation that arise from the polyspecific nature of OCT1, polyspecificity can also be used as a tool to better understand the structure-function relationships of this transporter.