Discovery and Synthesis of Hydroxy-l-Proline Blockers of the Neutral Amino Acid Transporters SLC1A4 (ASCT1) and SLC1A5 (ASCT2).

As a conformationally restricted amino acid, hydroxy-l-proline is a versatile scaffold for the synthesis of diverse multi-functionalized pyrrolidines for probing the ligand binding sites of biological targets. With the goal to develop new inhibitors of the widely expressed amino acid transporters SLC1A4 and SLC1A5 (also known as ASCT1 and ASCT2), we synthesized and functionally screened synthetic hydroxy-l-proline derivatives using electrophysiological and radiolabeled uptake methods against amino acid transporters from the SLC1, SLC7, and SLC38 solute carrier families. We have discovered a novel class of alkoxy hydroxy-pyrrolidine carboxylic acids (AHPCs) that act as selective high-affinity inhibitors of the SLC1 family neutral amino acid transporters SLC1A4 and SLC1A5. AHPCs were computationally docked into a homology model and assessed with respect to predicted molecular orientation and functional activity. The series of hydroxyproline analogs identified here represent promising new agents to pharmacologically modulate SLC1A4 and SLC1A5 amino acid exchangers which are implicated in numerous pathophysiological processes such as cancer and neurological diseases.

The glutamate and chloride permeation pathways are colocalized in individual neuronal glutamate transporter subunits.

Glutamate transporters have a homotrimeric subunit structure with a large central water-filled cavity that extends partially into the plane of the lipid bilayer (Yernool et al., 2004). In addition to uptake of glutamate, the transporters also mediate a chloride conductance that is increased in the presence of substrate. Whether the chloride channel is located in the central pore of the trimer or within the individual subunits has been controversial. We find that coexpression of wild-type neuronal glutamate transporter EAAT3 subunits with subunits mutated at R447, a residue governing substrate selectivity (Bendahan et al., 2000), results in transport activity consistent with two distinct noninteracting populations of transporters, in agreement with previous work suggesting that each subunit operates independently to transport substrate (Awes et al., 2004; Grewer et al., 2005; Koch and Larsson, 2005). In wild-type homotrimeric transporters, the glutamate concentration dependence of the anion conductance and the kinetics of glutamate flux were isolated and measured, and the anion channel activation was fitted to analytical expressions corresponding to (1) a central pore gated by binding to one or more subunits and (2) a channel pore in each subunit. The data indicate that glutamate-binding sites, transport pathways, and chloride channels reside in individual subunits in a trimer and function independently.