The Large-neutral Amino Acid Transporter 1 (LAT-1)-a sodiumindependent exchanger of amino acids, thyroid hormones, and prescription drugs-is highly expressed in the blood-brain barrier and various types of cancer. LAT-1 plays an important role in cancer development as well as in mediating drug and nutrient delivery across the blood-brain barrier, making it a key drug target. Here, we identify four LAT-1 ligands, including one chemically novel substrate, by comparative modeling, virtual screening, and experimental validation. These results may rationalize the enhanced brain permeability of two drugs, including the anticancer agent acivicin. Finally, two of our hits inhibited proliferation of a cancer cell line by distinct mechanisms, providing useful chemical tools to characterize the role of LAT-1 in cancer metabolism.arge-neutral Amino Acid Transporter 1 (LAT-1) is a sodiumindependent exchanger found in the brain, testis, and placenta, where it mediates transport of large-neutral amino acids (e.g., tyrosine) and thyroid hormones (e.g., triiodothyronine) across the cell membrane (1). More specifically, LAT-1 is highly expressed in the blood-and brain-facing membranes of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to supply the central nervous system (CNS) with essential nutrients and to help maintain the neural microenvironment (2). LAT-1 is also an important drug target because it transports several prescription drugs, such as the antiparkinsonian drug L-dopa and the anticonvulsant gabapentin, across the BBB, thereby enabling their pharmacologic effects (3,4). This function at the BBB has made LAT-1 a target for drug delivery by modifying CNS-impermeable drugs such that they become LAT-1 substrates and have enhanced BBB penetration (5, 6).In addition, LAT-1 expression levels are increased in many types of cancer, including non-small-cell lung cancer and glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) (7,8). LAT-1 expression increases as cancers progress, leading to higher expression levels in highgrade tumors and metastases (9). In particular, LAT-1 plays a key role in cancer-associated reprogrammed metabolic networks by supplying growing tumor cells with essential amino acids that are used as nutrients to build biomass and signaling molecules to enhance proliferation by activating progrowth pathways such as the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway (10). Furthermore, inhibiting LAT-1 function reduces tumor cell proliferation, indicating that it may be a viable target for novel anticancer therapies (11-13). A cancer drug targeting LAT-1 can therefore be a LAT-1 inhibitor that deprives the cancer cells of nutrients or a cytotoxic LAT-1 substrate with an intracellular target (e.g., a metabolic enzyme).LAT-1 is a large protein with 12 putative membrane-spanning helices (14). To transport solutes across the membrane, LAT-1 binds SLC3A2, a glycoprotein with a single membrane-spanning helix that serves as a chaperone for LAT-1 (14). The atomic structure of human LAT-1 is not known, but LAT-1 exhibits significant sequence similarity to prokar...