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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 282, Issue 12, 8915-8925, March 23, 2007
Localization of Cocaine Analog [125I]RTI 82 Irreversible Binding to Transmembrane Domain 6 of the Dopamine Transporter* 1![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
From the
Received for publication, November 16, 2006 , and in revised form, January 8, 2007.
The site of cocaine binding on the dopamine transporter (DAT) was investigated using the photoactivatable irreversible cocaine analog [125I]3 -(p-chlorophenyl)tropane-2 -carboxylic acid, 4'-azido-3'-iodophenylethyl ester ([125I]RTI 82). The incorporation site of this compound was mapped to transmembrane domains (TMs) 46 using epitope-specific immunoprecipitation of trypsin fragments and further localized using cyanogen bromide (CNBr), which hydrolyzes proteins on the C-terminal side of methionine residues. CNBr hydrolysis of [125I]RTI 82-labeled rat striatal and expressed human DATs produced fragments of 510 kDa consistent with labeling between Met271/272 or Met290 in TM5 to Met370/371 in TM7. To further define the incorporation site, substitution mutations were made that removed endogenous methionines and inserted exogenous methionines in combinations that would generate labeled CNBr fragments of distinct masses depending on the labeling site. The results obtained were consistent with the presence of TM6 but not TMs 4, 5, or 7 in the labeled fragments, with additional support for these conclusions obtained by epitope-specific immunoprecipitation and secondary digestion of CNBr fragments with endoproteinase Lys-C. The final localization of [125I]RTI 82 incorporation to rat DAT Met290Lys336 and human DAT I291M to R344M provides positive evidence for the proximity of cocaine binding to TM6. Residues in and near DAT TM6 regulate transport and transport-dependent conformational states, and TM6 forms part of the substrate permeation pathway in the homologous Aquifex aeolicus leucine transporter. Cocaine binding near TM6 may thus overlap the dopamine translocation pathway and function to inhibit TM6 structural rearrangements necessary for transport.
The dopamine transporter (DAT)2 is a neuronal protein that clears dopamine (DA) from the synapse via Na+/Cl--dependent active transport. DA reuptake is necessary for appropriate control of dopaminergic function and may be dysregulated in disorders such as Parkinson disease and drug abuse (1). Cocaine and many other compounds bind to DAT and inhibit DA reuptake, resulting in increased transmitter levels believed to mediate drug reinforcement (2). Despite extensive pharmacological investigation of transport inhibitors, the molecular mechanisms by which they are recognized by DAT and exert their effects remain largely unknown.
DAT and the related norepinephrine and serotonin transporters (NET and SERT) are integral membrane proteins that consist of 12 transmembrane domains (TMs), connecting intracellular (IL) and extracellular (EL) loops, and intracellular N and C termini (3). Substrate translocation is thought to occur by an alternating access mechanism that sequentially exposes extracellular and intracellular portions of the substrate permeation pathway to opposite sides of the membrane (4). The three-dimensional structures of these proteins are unknown, although they are recently proposed to be similar to that of the homologous Aquifex aeolicus leucine transporter, LeuTAa (5). The substrate binding site on LeuTAa is composed of residues from TMs 1, 3, 6, and 8, and some analogous sites have been identified in DAT, NET, and SERT (6, 7). LeuTAa, however, is not cocaine-sensitive, and its structure does not indicate how cocaine or other uptake blockers might interact at monoamine transporters. Cocaine binding to DAT is reduced by mutagenesis of many amino acids throughout the primary sequence (6, 7), but in most cases it is not clear if these effects are due to disruption of specific ligand interaction sites or to conformational alterations that indirectly impact binding. Thus the structure of the inhibitor binding site on DAT and the identities of the residues that dock cocaine and other blockers remain largely unknown. Using photoaffinity labeling as a positive function approach to investigate inhibitor binding domains, our laboratory has found two distinct regions of DAT containing TMs 12 and TMs 47 that are incorporation sites for photoactive cocaine, benztropine, and GBR analogs (810). One of the GBR compounds labels both domains, suggesting that the sites are adjacent and form a binding pocket for multiple classes of transport inhibitors.
Of the photoaffinity labels analyzed to date, the cocaine analog [125I]RTI 82 (Fig. 1) is the only one that becomes incorporated solely into the TM 47 region (10). More precise identification of its incorporation site, however, has been limited by the use of antibody-based procedures. In this study we use chemical cleavage and site-directed mutagenesis to further localize the site of [125I]RTI 82 attachment and identify its incorporation in a sequence containing TM6. This increases our understanding of the structure of the cocaine binding pocket on DAT and the molecular mechanism of cocaine action.
MaterialsThe amino precursor for [125I]RTI 82 was synthesized by Dr. Joo Hwan Cha (Medicinal Chemistry Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program) using modifications (11, 12) of the original procedure (13), and radioiodinated as previously described (14). [3H]CFT was from PerkinElmer Life Sciences (Wellesley, MA) and [3H]DA and Rainbow molecular mass markers were from Amersham Biosciences (Piscataway, NJ). HEK 293 cells were from ATCC (Manassas, VA); electrophoresis reagents were from Bio-Rad (Hercules, CA); cell culture reagents were from Invitrogen; protease inhibitors and FuGENE transfection reagents and trypsin were from Roche Applied Science; endoproteinase Lys-C was from Wako (Richmond, VA); cyanogen bromide, (-)-cocaine, GBR 12909, nomifensine, mazindol, desipramine, and imipramine were from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO); (+)-cocaine was the generous gift of Dr. Maarten Reith (New York University); the QuikChange mutagenesis kit was from Stratagene; and synthetic oligonucleotide primers were purchased from Genscript Corp. (Piscataway, NJ) or Integrated DNA Technologies (Coralville, IA). Male Sprague-Dawley rats were obtained from Charles River Laboratory (Wilmington, MA) and were housed and treated in accordance with regulations approved by the University of North Dakota Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. In Situ ProteolysisLabeling of rat striatal tissue with [125I]RTI 82, in situ proteolysis, and DAT immunoprecipitation assays were performed essentially as previously described (15). For pharmacological analysis of photolabeling, (-)-cocaine, (+)-cocaine, GBR 12909, mazindol, nomifensine, desipramine, or imipramine were added to the photolabel binding reaction to final concentrations of 1 or 10 µM. For proteolysis studies photolabeled rat striatal membrane suspensions were treated with or without 20200 µg/ml trypsin at 37 °C for 5 min, and membranes were centrifuged, washed, and solubilized. Photolabeled DAT and DAT fragments were immunoprecipitated with antiserum 16 generated against rDAT N-terminal amino acids 4259 or antiserum 5 directed against rDAT EL2 amino acids 225242 and analyzed by SDS-PAGE and autoradiography. Site-directed MutagenesisA 3xFLAG-His6-human (h) DAT cDNA in pcDNA3.1/His® vector was kindly provided by Dr. J. B. Justice, Jr. (Emory University). This sequence contained a previously described arginine to methionine variation at residue 344 (16). The methionine was reconverted to arginine using the QuikChange® mutagenesis kit (Stratagene), and the resulting product is indicated as the wild-type (WT) protein. Several additional point mutations were made singly or in combinations in the hDAT WT or R344M backgrounds to remove or insert methionines to generate custom CNBr cleavage sites. The mutations made were M272L, M272L/I291M, M272L/R344M, and M272L/I291M/R344M, and all were confirmed by sequencing the entire hDAT coding region (Northwoods DNA, Solway, MN). Cell CultureInitial experiments on hDAT were performed using HEK 293 cells stably expressing the hDAT R344M variant, which has been previously characterized (16, 17), and subsequently modified by the addition of a 3xFLAG-His6 epitope tag at the N terminus (10). For generation of new cell lines expressing methionine mutants, HEK 293 cells were grown in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and maintained in 5% CO2/95% O2 at 37 °C. Cells in 12-well plates were transfected with the indicated mutant plasmids using FuGENE transfection reagent and 0.5 µg of DNA/well, and transformed cells were selected after 24 h by addition of 400 µg/ml G418 to the culture medium. Stably transfected cell pools were grown to 7080% confluence in 12- or 24-well plates for use. DAT expression was verified by Western blotting cell lysates with hDAT monoclonal antibody 369 (MAB 369, Chemicon International) as previously described (Gaffaney and Vaughan (18)). [3H]DA Transport and [3H]CFT Binding AssaysCells expressing WT and mutant DATs were assayed for [3H]DA transport and [3H]CFT binding essentially as previously described (18). Cells were plated in 24-well plates, washed with Krebs-Ringer-HEPES (KRH) buffer (120 mM NaCl, 4.7 mM KCl, 2.2 mM CaCl2, 1.2 mM MgSO4, 1.2 mM KH2PO4, 10 mM HEPES, 10 mM glucose, pH 7.4), and assayed in triplicate for DA transport using 10 nM [3H]DA plus 10 µM DA in KRH and using 30 µM (-)-cocaine to define nonspecific uptake. Assays were conducted for 8 min at 37 °C, transport was stopped by washing cells with ice-cold buffer, and cells were solubilized with 1% Triton X-100. For [3H]CFT binding, washed cells were incubated in triplicate with 5 nM radioligand in KRH for 1 h at 0°C using 30 µM (-)-cocaine to define nonspecific binding. Binding was stopped by washing cells with ice-cold buffer, and cells were solubilized with 1% Triton X-100. Radioactivity in solubilized uptake and binding lysates was assessed by liquid scintillation counting at 62% efficiency. IC50 values for cocaine inhibition of [3H]DA uptake and [3H]CFT binding were determined by conducting assays in the presence of 10-910-3 M (-)-cocaine. All uptake and binding assays were performed at least three times with similar results. Non-linear regression analysis and analysis of variance were performed using Prism 3 software. Photoaffinity LabelingFor irreversible labeling of hDAT with [125I]RTI 82, cells expressing WT or mutant proteins were washed once with KRH and incubated with 5 nM radioligand in KRH buffer for 1 h on ice with shaking to allow reversible binding to occur. Cells were then irradiated with 254 nm ultraviolet light for 45 s to covalently attach the ligand to DAT, washed once with ice-cold KRH buffer, and lysed with 1% Triton X-100 containing protease inhibitors on ice for 1 h with shaking. Lysates were centrifuged at 15,000 x g for 15 min at 4 °C, and the supernatant was collected for analysis. Electrophoresis and AutoradiographyPhotoaffinity-labeled samples were subjected to SDS-PAGE and autoradiography on 10% acrylamide gels for intact DAT or 1720% or 18% acrylamide gels for peptide fragments using high and low range Rainbow markers as molecular mass standards (15). For gel purification of DAT the 80-kDa region of the gel containing labeled protein was excised, and the was protein extracted by electroelution as previously described (19). Electroeluted samples were dialyzed against MilliQ purified water in 10-kDa cutoff Slide-A-Lyzer dialysis cassettes (Pierce) and evaporated to dryness in a SpeedVac concentrator. CNBr HydrolysisDried electroeluted samples were incubated for 24 h at 22 °C in the dark with 0.1 ml of 1 M CNBr prepared in 70% formic acid or with 70% formic acid only (20). Reactions were stopped by addition of 1 ml of water followed by drying in a SpeedVac concentrator, and the resulting pellets were subjected to three additional rounds of suspension in water and drying. Dried samples were either prepared directly for electrophoresis by solubilization in gel sample buffer or were resuspended in 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, for immunoprecipitation with antiserum 5. All CNBr digestion experiments were replicated two to six times with similar results. Molecular masses of CNBr and trypsin fragments were calculated using the ExPASy peptide mass program (us.expasy.org/tools/peptide-mass.html). For ease of discussion, the fragments obtained by CNBr or trypsin digestion are referred to by their flanking methionine or arginine and lysine residues, although at the N termini the fragments begin at the residues following the cleavage sites. The residue numbers used to designate fragments or mutagenesis sites in various experiments are specific for rDAT or hDAT isoforms, which differ by one position at most of the sites discussed.
Lys-C Digestion of CNBr FragmentCNBr digestion and electrophoresis of [125I]RTI 82-labeled rDAT were performed as described above. The gel region containing the labeled fragment was excised, and the peptide was eluted by rotating gel pieces in 1 ml of 10 mM ammonium bicarbonate, pH 8.0, overnight at 21 °C. The eluate was dried in a SpeedVac concentrator, resuspended in 0.1 ml of 0.1 M Tris HCl, pH 9.0, and treated with 10 µg/ml endoproteinase Lys-C for 1 h at 37 °C. Digested samples were analyzed by electrophoresis and autoradiography on 18% SDS-polyacrylamide gels.
Pharmacology of [125I]RTI 82 Labeling of DATTo examine the pharmacological specificity of [125I]RTI 82 binding to DAT, labeling was performed in the presence of several DA transport blockers (Fig. 2). Labeling obtained in the control sample was completely displaced by the DA uptake blockers (-)-cocaine, mazindol, GBR 12909, and nomifensine, but was not affected by (+)-cocaine or the NET and SERT blockers desipramine and imipramine. These findings reflect the ability of these compounds to inhibit the reversible binding of [125I]RTI 82 to DAT and support the hypothesis that irreversible ligand attachment occurs in or near a pharmacologically relevant region of the protein.
Tryptic Mapping of [125I]RTI 82-Labeling SiteIn situ proteolysis of [125I]RTI 82-labeled rat striatal membranes with trypsin, which cleaves polypeptides at the C-terminal side of lysine and arginine residues, yielded several fragments of DAT that were immunoprecipitated by EL2 antibody 5 (Fig. 3A). Prominent fragments of
Because in situ proteolysis is performed using membrane suspensions, residues within the TMs are protected from protease and only amino acids in exposed loops are accessible to enzyme. Based on the LeuTAa structure, lysine and arginine residues in rat (r) DAT between Arg218 and the C-terminal tail that are exposed and could produce fragments of 25, 16, and 10 and kDa are present in IL5 (Lys514 and Arg520), EL4 (Lys373 and Arg379), and IL3 (Lys336 and Arg343), respectively (Fig. 3B). Retention of the photoaffinity label in the 16-kDa fragment thus indicates that ligand attachment occurs N-terminal to EL4, and the mass difference between the labeled 16- and 10-kDa fragments is consistent with excision of TM7 and retention of label in TMs 46 (Fig. 3B). The 10-kDa fragment is the smallest [125I]RTI 82-labeled peptide we have been able to precipitate with antibody 5, because more extensive proteolysis with trypsin separates the labeled domain from the antibody epitope (10). CNBr Mapping of [125I]RTI 82-Labeling SiteTo more precisely define the [125I]RTI 82 incorporation site on DAT we undertook a study to map photolabeled sites using cyanogen bromide (CNBr), which specifically cleaves peptide bonds on the C-terminal side of methionines. Both rat and human (h) DAT have a limited number of methionines in their sequence (Fig. 4). Within the first seven TMs of hDAT endogenous methionines are present at positions 1 and 11 in the N-terminal tail; 106, 111, and 116 in TM2; 272 in TM5; and 371 at the extracellular end of TM7 (Fig. 4, black circles). The analogous methionines plus another two at positions 173 in EL2 and 290 at the extracellular end of TM5 are present in rDAT (Fig. 4, open circles). The remaining six methionines in TMs 812 are present in both hDAT and rDAT, but are C-terminal to the [125I]RTI 82-labeling site and do not impact the results presented here. Our initial CNBr mapping studies were done with the hDAT R344M variant isolated by Eshleman et al. (16); this residue is indicated by the gray circle in Fig. 4.
To determine the cleavage pattern of [125I]RTI 82-labeled DAT with CNBr we used gel-purified, electroeluted DAT as the starting sample. Because the pharmacological displacement of [125I]RTI 82 photolabeling demonstrates that DAT is the only radiolabeled protein that electrophoreses at
Proteolysis of gel-purified [125I]RTI 82-labeled rDAT with CNBr is shown in Fig. 5A. The untreated protein migrated at 80 kDa (lane 1), consistent with its original mass, whereas after CNBr treatment most of the intact sample disappeared and the radioactivity appeared as a discrete band of 58 kDa (lane 3, arrow). This fragment was produced with good stoichiometry (3060% recovery) and thus represents a major photolabeling site. The same cleavage pattern was obtained with shorter and longer CNBr treatment times, indicating that the fragment is a limit digestion product, and in most experiments only minor levels of higher Mr incomplete cleavage products were present, indicating close to complete hydrolysis. In this gel and other experiments (see Fig. 7) the fragment migrated as a broad but evenly labeled band and on other gels (see Figs. 6 and 8) displayed a narrower appearance, consistent with the presence of a single peptide. To verify that the CNBr fragment originated from a part of DAT within or near to the cocaine binding site, a parallel sample was prepared in which [125I]RTI 82 labeling was performed in the presence of 10 µM (-)-cocaine (Fig. 5A). Cocaine displacement of labeling for the sample in lane 2 was obscured by overexposure from lane 1, but aliquots of the same preparations in lanes 5 and 6 show the blockade of [125I]RTI 82 labeling. Importantly, the labeled fragment seen in lane 3 was not obtained from the cocaine displaced sample (lane 4), consistent with the [125I]RTI 82-labeled fragment originating from the cocaine binding site. Finally, to verify that the fragment was generated by CNBr and not by nonspecific acid hydrolysis, labeled DAT was treated with the 70% formic acid vehicle lacking CNBr. In this case only the full-length cocaine-displaceable DAT was observed, and there was no production of any lower Mr species (lanes 5 and 6).
Fig. 5B shows the same analysis performed for R344M hDAT labeled with [125I]RTI 82. The results show full-length DAT (lanes 1 and 5) and displacement of label by cocaine (lanes 3 and 6). CNBr treatment produced a fragment of 58 kDa (lane 2) that was displaced by cocaine (lane 4) and was not produced by formic acid (lane 5), indicating the similarity of [125I]RTI 82 incorporation into rDAT and hDAT. The samples prepared in these studies also frequently contained very low Mr radioactivity that migrated ahead of the 3.5-kDa marker and just behind the gel dye front. In most cases (e.g. Fig. 5A), this radioactivity was present in both non-treated and formic acid treated samples and was not displaced by cocaine, indicating that even though it is carried with DAT through gel purification it is not a DAT CNBr peptide. Free [125I]RTI 82 migrates to a similar position on these gels (Fig. 5B, lane 7), and the high mobility radioactivity may represent free ligand or ligand complexed non-specifically with low molecular weight molecules such as lipids and passively carried through these procedures. Based on the localization of [125I]RTI 82 incorporation to TMs 46 by antibody studies, the masses of the labeled CNBr fragments are most consistent with TM 57 containing sequences extending from rDAT Met271 or Met290 to Met370 (calculated masses 10.7 or 8.8 kDa) and hDAT Met272 to R344M or Met371 (calculated masses 7.8 or 10.7 kDa). The shaded region in Fig. 4 schematically depicts the labeled rDAT and hDAT CNBr domains, taking into account the possibility of missed cleavages at Met290 in rDAT and R344M in hDAT.
Antiserum 5 Analysis of [125I]RTI 82-Labeled CNBr FragmentAlthough TMs 4 and 5 are present in the trypsin fragments seen in Fig. 3, the CNBr results are not consistent with the presence of TM4 or the region of TM5 N-terminal to Met271/272 in the labeled CNBr fragments. If labeling occurred in these regions, the rDAT CNBr fragment would extend at a minimum from Met173Met271 and would include antibody epitope 5 (Fig. 4). Although an Met173Met271 fragment would have 10.8 kDa of mass from protein, it would also contain the N-linked carbohydrate present on EL2, which imparts
Identification of TM6 as the [125I]RTI 82-Labeling Domain The elimination of regions N-terminal to Met271/272 as the site of [125I]RTI 82 incorporation in conjunction with localization of incorporation to within 10 kDa of epitope 5 in trypsin studies strongly indicates that the CNBr fragments in Fig. 5 consist of the sequence between hDAT Met272 to R344M or Met371 and rDAT Met271 or Met290 to Met370, because these are the only regions of overlap between the 10-kDa trypsin and 5- to 8-kDa CNBr fragments. To determine which TM in this sequence is the ligand attachment site and verify the residues undergoing CNBr hydrolysis we used a strategy of deleting endogenous methionines and inserting exogenous methionines in combinations that would produce labeled CNBr fragments of widely differing masses depending on which TM was labeled. We used hDAT for this analysis to minimize the number of potential CNBr cleavage sites and the number of multiple mutations required. The hDAT proteins used in this study were WT, R344M, M272L/R344M, and M272L/I291M/R344M. All of the mutants expressed full-length DAT protein at 100150% of WT levels assessed by Western blotting (not shown), and all exhibited easily detectable cocaine-blockable [3H]DA transport and whole cell [3H]CFT binding (Table 1). Although transport and binding values for the R344M and M272L/I291M/R344M mutants were statistically lower than for the WT, this could be due to lower DAT surface expression levels, which was not analyzed, and the increased [3H]CFT binding at M272L/R344M was not pursued. Importantly, the IC50 values for cocaine inhibition of [3H]DA transport and [3H]CFT binding at the WT and mutant proteins showed no statistical differences (Table 1), and all mutants also displayed robust cocaine-displaceable [125I]RTI 82 labeling (data not shown) that paralleled their [3H]CFT binding levels (Fig. 7). The functional similarities of the WT and mutant proteins indicate that the mutations did not significantly affect the overall structure of the protein or the cocaine binding site.
To directly compare the CNBr cleavage products in this study the WT, R344M, M272L/R344M, and M272L/I291M/R344M proteins were labeled with [125I]RTI 82, treated with CNBr, and electrophoresed on the same gel exactly in parallel. The untreated samples (odd-numbered lanes) and CNBr products (even-numbered lanes) produced are shown in Fig. 7A. Although the digestion in this experiment was less complete than in other figures, as indicated by the retention of higher Mr material, sufficient levels of low Mr peptides were produced to assess digestion patterns. The CNBr fragment from the R344M mutant migrated at 58 kDa as previously described (lane 4), whereas that from the WT protein migrated slightly more slowly at 610 kDa (lane 2). Although precise fragment masses cannot be determined from these gels, the relative electrophoretic mobilities of the fragments were clearly distinct, indicating differences in mass. The increased mobility of the fragment from the R344M hDAT relative to the fragment from the WT protein indicates that R344M was hydrolyzed, because otherwise the same fragments (Met272Met371) would have been produced from both proteins. The mass of the fragment from WT hDAT is consistent with labeling between Met272 and Met371 (10.7 kDa, shaded region in diagram), whereas the mass of the R344M fragment is consistent with labeling between Met272 and R344M (7.8 kDa, shaded region in diagram). The fragment from R344M is unlikely to represent an R344M-Met371 cleavage product containing TM7 (unshaded region in diagram), which would contain only 28 residues for a mass of 2.8 kDa. The interpretation that TM7 is not labeled is also supported by the trypsin studies and by additional results presented below.
In the next construct (lanes 5 and 6) we mutated Met272 in the R344M background to leucine and replaced I291 with methionine, which would prevent separation of TM5 but not TM6 from the TM2TM4 sequence that contains EL2. If the extracellular half of TM5 was labeled by [125I]RTI 82, the CNBr fragment produced from the M272L/I291M/R344M mutant would extend from Met116I291M (calculated mass of 19.1 kDa) plus the 25 kDa of carbohydrate. This fragment would have a total mass of 45 kDa, and importantly, a low Mr labeled fragment would not be produced. As seen in lane 6, however, a fragment of 46 kDa was produced from this mutant, whereas a 45-kDa fragment was not apparent, which excludes the extracellular half of TM5 between Met272 and Ile291 as the labeling site. The mass of the low Mr fragment produced is consistent with labeling occurring between I291M/R344M (5.8 kDa, shaded region in diagram), and the greater mobility of the fragment relative to the WT and R344M CNBr fragments is consistent with the loss of the 19 residues between Met272I291M (2 kDa). This result also supports the exclusion of TM7 as the labeling site, because if TM7 were labeled, the same CNBr fragments (R344M-Met371) would be produced from the R344M and M272L/I291M/R344M proteins. The same pattern of progressively smaller [125I]RTI 82-labeled CNBr fragments from these proteins and the clearly detectable differences in their electrophoretic mobilities were obtained in a separate identically conducted experiment in which samples were labeled, hydrolyzed, and electrophoresed on the same gel exactly in parallel. These results thus identify the TM6-containing sequence between hDAT Met291 and R344M as the [125I]RTI 82 labeling site.
To further substantiate this conclusion and confirm that the N termini of the fragments obtained in these studies were generated by hydrolysis of the residues indicated, we replaced Met272 in the R344M hDAT protein with leucine to remove the TM5 CNBr cleavage site. If the labeling site is in TM6, removal of Met272 would prevent its separation from TMs 25, which would prevent formation of the 5- to 8-kDa fragment seen in lane 4 and result in production of a labeled CNBr fragment that would extend from Met116 to R344M (Fig. 7B, lower panel). This fragment would contain 228 amino acids (25-kDa protein) plus
Lys-C Digestion of CNBr FragmentAlthough we did not perform the methionine mutagenesis experiments for rDAT, the mapping results indicate a similar interpretation for the rat protein. The evidence shown in Fig. 7 that all the endogenous and exogenous methionines surrounding the photolabeled site in hDAT (Met271, I291M, R344M, and Met371) are cleaved strongly suggests that the rDAT CNBr fragment is a complete digestion product extending from Met290 to Met370. As an additional method to confirm this we treated an [125I]RTI 82-labeled rDAT CNBr fragment with endoproteinase Lys-C, which specifically cleaves peptides on the C-terminal side of lysine residues, and a single lysine (Lys336) that could serve as a site of Lys-C proteolysis is present in rDAT midway through this sequence (Fig. 8). An rDAT CNBr fragment identified by SDS-PAGE and autoradiography was excised, eluted from the gel, and treated with or without Lys-C, followed by electrophoresis on an 18% gel (Fig. 8). The sample treated with vehicle migrated at
Using a combination of proteolysis, epitope-specific immunoprecipitation, and site-directed mutagenesis, we identify in this study a sequence of DAT that contains TM6 as the site of cocaine analog [125I]RTI 82-irreversible incorporation. The smallest [125I]RTI 82-labeled fragment identified extends from rDAT Met290 to Lys336, which includes over half of EL3, all of TM6, and a few residues of IL3. We cannot at present exclude the possibility that incorporation of the ligand occurs in loop structures but will focus on the transmembrane spanning sequence as the likely site of attachment, because most currently available evidence indicates that determinants for uptake blocker binding in DAT and related transporters are present in TMs rather than in loops (21, 22). Covalent attachment of [125I]RTI 82 in DAT TM6 provides positive evidence that reversible binding of cocaine occurs in or near this domain. Other results consistent with TM6 participation in cocaine binding include findings from DAT-NET and human-bovine DAT chimeras that implicated TMs 48 (23) and TMs 68 (22) in maintenance of cocaine or CFT affinity. In addition, at least twenty residues in the DAT 290/291336/337 sequence have been analyzed by site-directed mutagenesis (6, 7), with several mutants showing altered cocaine-binding properties. Of the proteins that display proper processing and surface expression, mutations that reduced cocaine or cocaine analog binding were found at hDAT residues Trp311, Thr316, Gln317, Ser321, and Tyr335 (6, 24, 25, 26) and rDAT Phe319, Phe325, and Phe331 (27), whereas increased cocaine affinity occurred at D313N (26). Most of the inhibitory mutations decreased cocaine affinity by only modest amounts (2- to 3-fold) that may be consistent with indirect effects on binding site structure rather than alteration of direct interaction sites, although mutation of multiple contact points may be required to reduce inhibitor affinity more significantly (28). Mutations in the TM6 region that did not affect cocaine binding were found at hDAT residues Leu305, Cys306, Glu307, Ala308, Ser309, and Ile312 (in an H193K background) (29), hDAT Cys319 (30), and rDAT Cys305 (6). Participation of TM6 in cocaine binding is also supported by findings consistent with formation of TM2TM6 interhelical contacts that support the optimal configuration of transport and cocaine binding sites (31).
In LeuTAa TMs 1 and 6 are adjacent and form one side of the substrate binding site (5). If DAT conforms to this structure, our result showing [125I]RTI 82 attachment to TM6 indicates that cocaine binding occurs close to the DA binding site. TM6 of LeuTAa is a discontinuous -helix separated by five amino acids of non-helical structure, and leucine binding occurs in and just extracellular to the unwound region at residues corresponding to DAT Cys319, Phe320, Gly323, and Phe326 (Fig. 9, asterisks), while sodium interacts with a threonine corresponding to DAT Ser321 (Fig. 9, circle with dashed line). Mutation of Gly323 in DAT leads to loss of DA transport (32), consistent with substrate involvement. Many of the mutations that decrease cocaine binding to DAT are clustered near this region (Fig. 9, blue circles), consistent with proximity of cocaine and presumed substrate binding sites, whereas most of the mutations that do not affect cocaine binding are located in the more extracellular part of the helix (Fig. 9, tan circles). TM6 and IL3 also participate in conformational changes that regulate the transition between extracellularly and intracellularly facing transporter forms during DA translocation. These conformational rearrangements are suppressed by mutation of Asp313, Tyr335, Tyr343, and Asp345 (26, 33, 34), which leads to transport inhibition. The participation of TM6 and its adjacent loops in structural rearrangements necessary for DA transport suggests that cocaine interaction with this domain may prevent these changes and/or stabilize a transport deficient state. In the substrate-bound form of LeuTAa the region of TM6 intracellular to the unwound sequence is closed to substrate passage via contacts with TMs 1, 3, and 8, while the region to the extracellular side is outwardly open and may provide substrate access. Such a form of DAT may be the conformation recognized by cocaine and/or stabilized for prevention of transport, because kinetic studies indicate that cocaine binds to an outwardly facing form of NET (35), and some of the mutations that increase (D313N) or decrease (Y335A and D345A) cocaine affinity act by, respectively, stabilizing extracellularly or intracellularly facing DAT conformations (26, 33, 34). These studies are consistent with cocaine contact points in or near TM6 occurring at residues extracellular to the unwound region. Cocaine can tolerate significant steric bulk at the C2 carbon of the tropane ring with maintenance of binding affinity (36), suggesting that this aspect of the molecule is oriented toward an opened protein region. The C2 tropane carbon is the site to which the phenyl azido arm of [125I]RTI 82 is appended (Fig. 1A), compatible with a ligand binding orientation in which the pharmacophore occupies the same site as cocaine near the TM6-unwound region while the phenyl azido arm extends toward the opened region where it forms its covalent attachment. The cocaine elements crucial for high affinity binding at DAT include the phenyl ring, tropane ring, and tropane nitrogen (Fig. 1B) (36). Because the phenylazido group on [125I]RTI 82 is appended to a site that is non-essential for binding, irreversible attachment will occur near to but presumably not at the residues that directly contact the cocaine pharmacophore. The interatomic distances between the azido group of [125I]RTI 82 and the tropane ring bridge nitrogen, C2 carbonyl carbon, and phenyl ring were measured on the three-dimensional minimum energy conformation of RTI 82. These distances were measured as NN3 = 10.35 Å, CN3 = 8.6 Å, and PhN3 = 11.2 Å (Fig. 1C). These measurements are predicted to define maximum distances between the [125I]RTI 82 adduction site and other ligand-protein contact points in the cocaine binding pocket, with the possibility that, in the bound form of the ligand, the phenylazido arm, which is likely to be highly flexible, may adopt a conformation different from the energy minima projection from which these distances were measured. The specific amino acid to which [125I]RTI 82 becomes attached is not yet known. We mutated several candidate hDAT residues in the extracellular half of the TM6 sequence, including Phe302, Leu305, Ala314, Cys319, and Leu322, to alanine or leucine, (Fig. 9, circles with bold lines), but these mutations did not prevent [125I]RTI 82 labeling (not shown). It is not clear, however, if these results exclude the mutated residues as the incorporation sites, because adduction of photoaffinity ligands has been found at all standard amino acids (37), suggesting that ligand-amino acid proximity may be of greater importance in bond formation than the nature of the residue side chain. If [125I]RTI 82 photoincorporation does not require a specific amino acid side chain or occurs in peptide backbone structure, irreversible attachment may be retained at a mutated site, and a positive function approach such as mass spectrometry will be required to identify the adducted residue.
We have also mapped the attachment site of N-[4-(4-azido-3-[125I]iodophenyl)butyl]-2-carbomethoxy-3 GBR 12909- and benztropine-based photoaffinity ligands also become incorporated into TMs 12 and/or TMs 47 of DAT (10). Although it is not known if these ligands interact with the same TMs or residues as the 3-aryltropane ligands, these findings suggest that multiple classes of uptake blocking drugs share a binding site that is at least partially overlapping with that of cocaine and thus inhibit transport by similar mechanisms. Identification of the residues adducted to [125I]RTI 82 and other irreversible ligands will provide unique information about the three-dimensional structure of uptake blocker binding domains in DAT, the orientation of ligands in the binding pocket, and the relationship of uptake blocker and substrate active sites. This will extend our understanding of transport mechanisms and accelerate the development of therapeutics for pharmacological manipulation of DA transport in drug abuse and disease.
* This work was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse DA15175 (to R. A. V.), North Dakota EPSCoR Doctoral Dissertation Assistantship (to M. L. P.), P20 RRO 16741 from the IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence Program of the National Center for Research Resources, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program (to A. H. N.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. 1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 501 N. Columbia Road, Grand Forks, ND 58203-9037. Tel.: 701-777-3419; Fax: 701-777-2382; E-mail: rvaughan{at}medicine.nodak.edu.
2 The abbreviations used are: DAT, dopamine transporter; NET, norepinephrine transporter; SERT, serotonin transporter; DA, dopamine; TM, transmembrane domain; IL, intracellular loop; EL, extracellular loop; HEK 293 cells, human embryonic kidney cells; [125I]RTI82, [125I]3
We thank Dr. Joo Hwan Cha (Medicinal Chemistry Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program) for synthesizing the RTI 82 precursor, Dr. Joseph B. Justice Jr. (Emory University) for providing the 3xFLAG-His6 hDAT HEK 293 cells and the 3xFLAG-His6 hDAT pcDNA, and Dr. Siegfried Detke (University of North Dakota) for advice on mutagenesis.
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