Drug transporters have been suggested to be involved in various aspects of pharmacokinetics, including absorption, distribution and excretion. Identification and characterization of drug transporters have given us a scientific basis for understanding drug disposition, as well as the molecular mechanisms of drug interaction and inter-individual/inter-species differences. On the other hand, regulatory mechanisms of drug transporters are still poorly understood, and information is limited to induction and down-regulation of drug transporters by various microsomal enzyme inducers. Little is known about the molecular machinery that directly interacts with the drug transporters. As a first step to clarify such molecular mechanisms, recent studies have identified PDZ (PSD-95/Discs-large/ZO-1) domain-containing proteins that directly interact with the so-called PDZ binding motif located at the C-terminus of drug transporters.Some of the PDZ proteins have been suggested to regulate transporters via at least two pathways, i.e., stabilization at the cell-surface and direct modulation of transporter function. Therefore, it is possible that membrane transport of therapeutic agents is not only governed by the drug transporters themselves, but also indirectly by PDZ proteins. The PDZ proteins are classified as a family, the members of which are thought to have distinct, but also redundant physiological roles. The purpose of this review article is to summarize the available knowledge on protein interactions and functional modulation of drug transporters.-3 -
Overview
1-1) IntroductionRecent progress in molecular biology has led to the identification of various types of drug transporters which accept therapeutic agents as substrates. Drug transporters are generally classified into the SLC (solute carrier) and ABC (ATP-binding cassette) superfamilies. These drug transporters are believed to be directly involved in various aspects of drug disposition, such as absorption, distribution and excretion of drugs (Sai and Tsuji 2004; Shitara et al., 2004;Marzolini et al., 2004;Hagenbuch and Meier 2003;Jonker and Schinkel 2004). However, little is yet known about how these transporters are organized in the plasma membranes, and how their expression and function are regulated. Protein-protein interaction is involved in many biological events, including signal transduction, intracellular trafficking, scaffold formation for protein networks, cellular polarization and protein turnover. In this review article, therefore, we summarize recent findings on direct interaction of drug transporters with so-called adaptor proteins that contain PDZ (PSD-95/Discs-large/ZO-1)