|
|
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Departments of Medicine (R.Z., M.H.A., I.D.G.), Molecular Pharmacology (R.Z., A.Q., E.T., I.D.G.), and Physiology and Biophysics (M.J., M.H.A.), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
The reduced folate carrier (RFC) and the proton-coupled folate transporter (PCFT) are ubiquitously expressed in normal and malignant mammalian tissues and in human solid tumor cell lines. This article addresses the extent to which PCFT contributes to transport of pemetrexed and to the activities of this and other antifolates relative to RFC at physiological pH. Either RFC or PCFT cDNA was stably transfected into a transporter-null HeLa cell variant to achieve activities similar to their endogenous function in wild-type HeLa cells. PCFT and RFC produced comparable increases in pemetrexed activity in growth medium with 5-formyltetrahydrofolate. However, PCFT had little or no effect on the activities of methotrexate, N-(5-[N-(3,4-dihydro-2-methyl-4-oxyquinazolin-6-ylmethyl)-N-methyl-amino]-2-thenoyl)-L-glutamic acid (raltitrexed, Tomudex; ZD1694), or N
-(4-amino-4-deoxypteroyl)-N
-hemiphthaloyl-L-ornithine (PT523) in comparison with RFC irrespective of the folate growth source. PCFT, expressed at high levels in Xenopus laevis oocytes and in transporter-competent HepG2 cells, exhibited a high affinity for pemetrexed, with an influx Km value of 0.2 to 0.8 µM at pH 5.5. PCFT increased the growth inhibitory activity of pemetrexed, but not that of the other antifolates in HepG2 cells grown with 5-formyltetrahydrofolate at physiological pH. These findings illustrate the unique role that PCFT plays in the transport and pharmacological activity of pemetrexed. Because of the ubiquitous expression of PCFT in human tumors, and the ability of PCFT to sustain pemetrexed activity even in the absence of RFC, tumor cells are unlikely to become resistant to pemetrexed as a result of impaired transport because of the redundancy of these genetically distinct routes.
Address correspondence to: Dr. I David Goldman, Departments of Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Ave., Bronx, NY 10461. E-mail: igoldman{at}aecom.yu.edu
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
E. S. Unal, R. Zhao, and I. D. Goldman Role of the glutamate 185 residue in proton translocation mediated by the proton-coupled folate transporter SLC46A1 Am J Physiol Cell Physiol, July 1, 2009; 297(1): C66 - C74. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
E. S. Unal, R. Zhao, M.-H. Chang, A. Fiser, M. F. Romero, and I. D. Goldman The Functional Roles of the His247 and His281 Residues in Folate and Proton Translocation Mediated by the Human Proton-coupled Folate Transporter SLC46A1 J. Biol. Chem., June 26, 2009; 284(26): 17846 - 17857. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
F. M. Muggia, G. J. Peters, and J. R. Landolph Jr. XIII International Charles Heidelberger Symposium and 50 Years of Fluoropyrimidines in Cancer Therapy Held on September 6 to 8, 2007 at New York University Cancer Institute, Smilow Conference Center Mol. Cancer Ther., May 1, 2009; 8(5): 992 - 999. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
R. Zhao, S. H. Min, Y. Wang, E. Campanella, P. S. Low, and I. D. Goldman A Role for the Proton-coupled Folate Transporter (PCFT-SLC46A1) in Folate Receptor-mediated Endocytosis J. Biol. Chem., February 13, 2009; 284(7): 4267 - 4274. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||