Interaction of Three Regiospecific Amino Acid Residues Is Required for OATP1B1 Gain of OATP1B3 Substrate Specificity

The human organic anion-transporting polypeptides OATP1B1 (SLCO1B1) and OATP1B3 (SLCO1B3) are liver-enriched membrane transporters of major importance to hepatic uptake of numerous endogenous compounds, including bile acids, steroid conjugates, hormones, and drugs, including the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl Co-A reductase inhibitor (statin) family of cholesterol-lowering compounds. Despite their remarkable substrate overlap, there are notable exceptions: in particular, the gastrointestinal peptide hormone cholecystokinin-8 (CCK-8) is a high affinity substrate for OATP1B3 but not OATP1B1. We utilized homologous recombination of linear DNA by E. coli to generate a library of cDNA containing monomer size chimeric OATP1B1–1B3 and OATP1B3–1B1 transporters with randomly distributed chimeric junctions to identify three discrete regions of the transporter involved in conferring CCK-8 transport activity. Site-directed mutagenesis of three key residues in OATP1B1 transmembrane helices 1 and 10, and extracellular loop 6, to the corresponding residues in OATP1B3, resulted in a gain of CCK-8 transport by OATP1B1. The residues appear specific to CCK-8, as the mutations did not affect transport of the shared OATP1B substrate atorvastatin or the OATP1B1-specific substrate estrone sulfate. Regions involved in gain of CCK-8 transport by OATP1B1, when mapped to the crystal structures of bacterial transporters from the major facilitator superfamily, are positioned to suggest these regions could readily interact with drug substrates. Accordingly, our data provide new insight into the molecular determinants of the substrate specificity of these hepatic uptake transporters with relevance to targeted drug design and prediction of drug–drug interactions.