TY - JOUR T1 - CYP26C1 is a hydroxylase of multiple active retinoids and interacts with cellular retinoic acid binding proteins JF - Molecular Pharmacology JO - Mol Pharmacol DO - 10.1124/mol.117.111039 SP - mol.117.111039 AU - Guo Zhong AU - David Ortiz AU - Alex Zelter AU - Abhinav Nath AU - Nina Isoherranen Y1 - 2018/01/01 UR - http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/early/2018/02/23/mol.117.111039.abstract N2 - The clearance of retinoic acid (RA) and its metabolites is believed to be regulated by the CYP26 enzymes, but the specific roles of CYP26A1, CYP26B1 and CYP26C1 in clearing active vitamin A metabolites have not been defined. The goal of this study was to establish the substrate specificity of CYP26C1, and determine whether CYP26C1 interacts with cellular RA binding proteins (CRABPs). CYP26C1 was found to effectively metabolize all-trans- retinoic acid (atRA), 9-cis-retinoic acid (9-cis-RA), 13-cis-retinoic acid and 4-oxo-atRA with the highest intrinsic clearance towards 9-cis-RA. In comparison to CYP26A1 and CYP26B1, CYP26C1 resulted in a different metabolite profile for retinoids, suggesting differences in the active site structure of CYP26C1 when compared to other CYP26s. Homology modeling of CYP26C1 suggested that this is due to distinct binding orientation of retinoids within CYP26C1 active site. In comparison to other CYP26 family members, CYP26C1 was up to 10-fold more efficient in clearing 4-oxo-atRA (intrinsic clearance 153 μl/min/pmol) than CYP26A1 and CYP26B1 suggesting that CYP26C1 may be important in clearing this active retinoid. In support of this, CRABPs delivered 4-oxo-atRA and atRA for metabolism by CYP26C1. Despite the tight binding of 4-oxo-atRA and atRA with CRABPs, the Km value of these substrates with CYP26C1 was not increased when the substrates were bound with CRABPs, in contrast to what is predicted by free drug hypothesis. Together these findings suggest that CYP26C1 is a 4-oxo-atRA hydroxylase and may be important in regulating the concentrations of this active retinoid in human tissues. ER -