The movement of anionic porphyrins (for example, haem) across intracellular membranes is crucial to many biological processes, but their mitochondrial translocation and coordination with haem biosynthesis is not understood. Transport of porphyrins into isolated mitochondria is energy-dependent, as expected for the movement of anions into a negatively charged environment. ATP-binding cassette transporters actively facilitate the transmembrane movement of substances. We found that the mitochondrial ATP-binding cassette transporter ABCB6 is upregulated (messenger RNA and protein in human and mouse cells) by elevation of cellular porphyrins and postulated that ABCB6 has a function in porphyrin transport. We also predicted that ABCB6 is functionally linked to haem biosynthesis, because its mRNA is found in both human bone marrow and CD71+ early erythroid cells (by database searching), and because our results show that ABCB6 is highly expressed in human fetal liver, and Abcb6 in mouse embryonic liver. Here we demonstrate that ABCB6 is uniquely located in the outer mitochondrial membrane and is required for mitochondrial porphyrin uptake. After ABCB6 is upregulated in response to increased intracellular porphyrin, mitochondrial porphyrin uptake activates de novo porphyrin biosynthesis. This process is blocked when the Abcb6 gene is silenced. Our results challenge previous assumptions about the intracellular movement of porphyrins and the factors controlling haem biosynthesis.

The role of the multidrug resistance protein MRP4/ABCC4 in vivo remains undefined. To explore this role, we generated Mrp4-deficient mice. Unexpectedly, these mice showed enhanced accumulation of the anticancer agent topotecan in brain tissue and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Further studies demonstrated that topotecan was an Mrp4 substrate and that cells overexpressing Mrp4 were resistant to its cytotoxic effects. We then used new antibodies to discover that Mrp4 is unique among the anionic ATP-dependent transporters in its dual localization at the basolateral membrane of the choroid plexus epithelium and in the apical membrane The endothelial cells of the brain's capillaries are tightly joined to form a hydrophobic permeability barrier (32) termed the blood-brain barrier. Pgp expression in these cells limits the movement of hydrophobic cationic drugs from the blood into the brain (36,42,43). However, in vitro, these capillary endothelial cells also transport organic anions unidirectionally toward the capillary lumen in an energy-dependent fashion (5, 25, 41). Therefore, the capillary endothelial cells appear to express an unidentified anionic ABC transporter. Currently, it is unknown whether an anionic ABC transporter is expressed at functional levels in vivo in the endothelium of brain capillaries.The ABC transporter Mrp4, originally described as a nucleotide transporter (37), is known to transport a diverse array of compounds (2,7,34) and is capable of transporting organic anions as well as antiviral and antiretroviral compounds that do not easily penetrate the central nervous system (CNS) (2, 3, 9, 27, 37). Mrp4 expression was previously demonstrated on the basolateral membrane of the prostate gland and the apical membrane of the kidney (21, 44). Studies in cultured epithelial cells have demonstrated basolateral localization of Mrp4 (22). Transporters typically route to one surface in polarized cells. For instance, the Mrp (ABCC) subfamily members localize to either the basolateral or apical membrane, but not to both. MRP1 is restricted to the basolateral membrane of the choroid plexus and intestine, whereas MRP2 is found on the apical membrane in the intestine and liver (26,29). Mrp4 might be unique among the Mrp transporters in having cell-or tissuedependent polarized expression, but the biological importance of this unique ability to localize either apically or basolaterally remains unknown.We have developed Mrp4 knockout mice, and here we report their first use to show that Mrp4 is expressed in the lumen of brain capillaries and in the basolateral membrane in the choroid plexus epithelium. In vivo, Mrp4 restricts topotecan movement from the blood into the CSF and from the capillaries into the brain tissue by virtue of its unique ability to traffic to either the apical or basolateral membrane. We further show that Mrp4 overexpression confers resistance to the camptothecin topotecan. These studies have specific therapeutic implications for targeting the CNS that might harbor tumors but have more general impl...

Dideoxynucleosides, which are potent inhibitors of HIV reverse transcriptase and other viral DNA polymerases, are a common component of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) (ref. 1). Six reverse transcriptase inhibitors have been approved for human use: azidothymidine; 2'3'-dideoxycytidine; 2'3'-dideoxyinosine; 2', 3'-didehydro-3'deoxythymidine; 2',3'-dideoxy-3'-thiacytidine; and 4-[2-amino-6-(cyclopropylamino)-9H-purin-9-yl]-2-cyclopentene-1-++ +metha nol. Although drug-resistant HIV strains resulting from genetic mutation have emerged in patients treated with HAART (ref. 1), some patients show signs of drug resistance in the absence of drug-resistant viruses. In our study of alternative or additional mechanisms of resistance operating during antiviral therapy, overexpression and amplification of the MRP4 gene correlated with ATP-dependent efflux of PMEA (9-(2-phosphonylmethoxyethyl)adenine) and azidothymidine monophosphate from cells and, thus, with resistance to these drugs. Overexpression of MRP4 mRNA and MRP4 protein severely impaired the antiviral efficacy of PMEA, azidothymidine and other nucleoside analogs. Increased resistance to PMEA and amplification of the MRP4 gene correlated with enhanced drug efflux; transfer of chromosome 13 containing the amplified MRP4 gene conferred resistance to PMEA. MRP4 is the first transporter, to our knowledge, directly linked to the efflux of nucleoside monophosphate analogs from mammalian cells.

Chromosomal translocations in acute leukemia that affect the AML-1/CBF␤ transcription factor complex create dominant inhibitory proteins. However, the mechanisms by which these proteins act remain obscure. Here we demonstrate that the multidrug resistance 1 (MDR-1) promoter is a target for AML/ETO transcriptional repression. This repression is of basal, not activated, expression from the MDR-1 promoter and thus represents a new mechanism for AML/ETO function. We have defined two domains in AML/ETO that are required for repression of basal transcription from the MDR-1 promoter: a hydrophobic heptad repeat (HHR) motif and a conserved zinc finger (ZnF) domain termed the MYND domain. The HHR mediates formation of AML/ETO homodimers and AML/ETO-ETO heterodimers. Single serine substitutions at conserved cysteine residues within the predicted ZnFs also abrogate transcriptional repression. Finally, we observe that AML/ ETO can also inhibit Ets-1 activation of the MDR-1 promoter, indicating that AML/ETO can disrupt both basal and Ets-1-dependent transcription. The fortuitous inhibition of MDR-1 expression in t(8;21)-containing leukemias may contribute to the favorable response of these patients to chemotherapeutic drugs.AML-1 is the direct or indirect target of multiple chromosomal translocations in acute B-cell and myeloid leukemia. t(8;21) and inv(16) disrupt AML-1 and its heterodimeric partner, CBF␤, respectively, and are the most frequent translocations in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). These translocations are found in the leukemic blasts of up to 30% of patients with AML with discernable translocations (28, 37). t(12;21) also disrupts AML-1 in B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemias of children (43). Thus, AML-1 is one of the most frequently mutated genes in human leukemia. Interestingly, patients containing these translocations uniformly respond better to chemotherapy, with an increased 5-year survival rate (3,9,21,42). t(8;21)(q22;q22) fuses the N-terminal 177 amino acids (aa) of AML-1 to the C-terminal 575 aa of ETO to form the chimeric AML/ETO protein (36). An analysis of the structure of AML/ETO reveals that the DNA binding runt domain of AML-1 is not altered but that the transactivation domain of AML-1 has been replaced by ETO. This led to the hypothesis that the fusion protein acts as a dominant inhibitor of AML-1B function (32, 34). AML/ETO interfered with AML-1B-activated transcription of the T-cell receptor ␤ (TCR␤) enhancer, and the interleukin 3 and granulocyte-macrophage colonystimulating factor (GM-CSF) promoters, but did not affect the basal expression of these promoters (13,32,45). The dominant inhibitory action of the t(8;21) and the inv(16) fusion proteins has been confirmed biologically by expressing these fusion proteins during murine development (4, 48). These mice display the same phenotype as that displayed by AML-1 (and CBF␤-)-deficient mice (39, 46).Multiple mechanisms have been proposed for transcriptional repression, including competition for binding sites and interaction with surrounding facto...

The most frequently expressed drug resistance genes, MDR1 and MRP1, occur in human tumors with mutant p53. However, it was unknown if mutant p53 transcriptionally regulated both MDR1 and MRP1. We demonstrated that mutant p53 did not activate either the MRP1 promoter or the endogenous gene. In contrast, mutant p53 strongly up-regulated the MDR1 promoter and expression of the endogenous MDR1 gene. Notably, cells that expressed either a transcriptionally inactive mutant p53 or the empty vector showed no endogenous MDR1 up-regulation. Transcriptional activation of the MDR1 promoter by mutant p53 required an Ets binding site, and mutant p53 and Ets-1 synergistically activated MDR1 transcription. Biochemical analysis revealed that Ets-1 interacted exclusively with mutant p53s in vivo but not with wild-type p53. These findings are the first to demonstrate the induction of endogenous MDR1 by mutant p53 and provide insight into the mechanism.The emergence of drug resistance poses a major obstacle to the success of cancer chemotherapy. Tumor cells acquire drug resistance via many routes including alterations in transport, drug targets, metabolism, and/or genes regulating cell survival. The most common alterations in drug transport are increased expression of MDR1 1 (the gene product is P-glycoprotein (1, 2)) and the multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP1) (3, 4). Both are energy-dependent anticancer drug efflux pumps and play critical roles in the response to chemotherapeutic drugs (e.g. vinca alkaloids, taxanes, and epipodophyllotoxins). Further, both MDR1 and MRP1 are expressed in colon tumors that frequently express mutant (MT) forms of p53 (5, 6) and are intractable to chemotherapy. Notably, we have shown directly that MDR1 in colon tumors is normally repressed by wild-type (wt) p53 (7). In an analogous fashion Wang and Beck (9) as well as Sullivan et al. (8) have shown that wt p53 represses MRP1. Many clinical studies show that MT p53 expression is associated with increased MDR1 and/or MRP1 expression (5, 10, 11). These findings are fully consistent with a loss of p53 repression leading to MDR1 or MRP1 up-regulation. However, it is just as likely that these genes could be up-regulated by the "gain-offunction" activity of MT p53s (12-14).p53 deletion or mutation is one of the most frequent alterations in human malignancy and is clearly a critical step in the progression of colorectal cancer (15). Close to 90% of the p53 mutations in human tumors results in a disruption of the DNA binding domain. This not only disrupts transrepression and sequence-specific transactivation but also confers a gain-offunction activity that was first demonstrated for many MT p53s as acquiring the ability to induce tumors (13). This property was associated with the capability of these MT p53s to stimulate the expression of an alternate set of endogenous genes (13, 14, 16) that could potentially promote tumor progression and impair therapeutic response. However, although c-myc has unequivocally been demonstrated to be an endogenous t...

The ABC transporter, Mrp4, transports the sulfated steroid DHEA-s, and sulfated bile acids interact with Mrp4 with high affinity. Hepatic Mrp4 levels are low, but increase under cholestatic conditions. We therefore inferred that up-regulation of Mrp4 during cholestasis is a compensatory mechanism to protect the liver from accumulation of hydrophobic bile acids. We determined that the nuclear receptor CAR is required to coordinately up-regulate hepatic expression of Mrp4 and an enzyme known to sulfate hydroxy-bile acids and steroids, Sult2a1. CAR activators increased Mrp4 and Sult2a1 expression in primary human hepatocytes and HepG2, a human liver cell line. Sult2a1 was down-regulated in Mrp4-null mice, further indicating an inter-relation between Mrp4 and Sult2a1 gene expression. Based on the hydrophilic nature of sulfated bile acids and the Mrp4 capability to transport sulfated steroids, our findings suggest that Mrp4 and Sult2a1 participate in an integrated pathway mediating elimination of sulfated steroid and bile acid metabolites from the liver.

The proteinase-activated receptor 2 is expressed on a subset of primary afferent neurons and may participate in the neurogenic component of inflammation. We hypothesized that this receptor may also play a role in neuronal sensitization and contribute to the pathogenesis of pain in inflammatory conditions such as pancreatitis. Using a specific proteinase-activated receptor 2 activating peptide, we found evidence of such sensitization in vitro in the form of enhanced capsaicin- and KCl-evoked release of calcitonin gene-related peptide, a marker for nociceptive signaling. We then demonstrated that injection of the proteinase-activated receptor 2 activating peptide into the pancreatic duct can activate and sensitize pancreas-specific afferent neurons in vivo, as measured by Fos expression in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. These observations suggest that proteinase-activated receptor 2 contributes to nociceptive signaling and may provide a novel link between inflammation and pain.

Mutations in the beta subunit of the cGMP phosphodiesterase gene (beta PDE) can cause a recessively inherited retinal degeneration in several species, including mice, dogs and humans. We tested the possibility of altering the course of retinal degeneration in the rd mouse through subretinal injection of a recombinant replication-defective adenovirus that contains the murine cDNA for wild-type (beta PDE, Ad.CMV beta PDE. Subretinal injection of Ad.CMV beta PDE results in beta PDE transcripts and increased PDE activity and delays photoreceptor cell death by six weeks. The findings demonstrate cell rescue by in vivo gene transfer, thus supporting the feasibility of treating an inherited retinal degeneration by somatic gene therapy.