Cotransfecting norepinephrine transporter and vesicular monoamine transporter 2 genes for increased retention of metaiodobenzylguanidine labeled with iodine 131 in malignant hepatocarcinoma cells

Norepinephrine transporter （NET） transfection leads to significant uptake of iodine-131-labeled metaiodobenzylguanidine （^131I-MIBG） in non-neuroendocrine tumors. However, the use of ^131I-MIBG is limited by its short retention time in target cells. To prolong the retention of ^131I-MIBG in target cells, we infected hepatocarcinoma （HepG2） cells with Lentivirus-encoding human NET and vesicular monoamine transporter 2 （VMAT2） genes to obtain NET-expressing, NET-VMAT2-coexpressing, and negative-control cell lines. We evaluated the uptake and efflux of 131I-MIBG both in vitro and in vivo in mice bearing transfected tumors. NET- expressing and NET-VMAT2-coexpressing cells respectively showed 2.24 and 2.22 times higher ^131I-MIBG uptake than controls. Two hours after removal of ^131I-MIBG-containing medium, 25.4% efflux was observed in NET- VMAT2-coexpressing cells and 38.6% in NET-expressing cells. In vivo experiments were performed in nude mice bearing transfected tumors; results revealed that NET-VMAT2-coexpressing tumors had longer ^131I-MIBG retention time than NET-expressing tumors. Meanwhile, NET-VMAT2-coexpressing and NET-expressing tumors displayed 0.54% and 0.19%, respectively, of the injected dose per gram of tissue 24 h after ^131I-MIBG administration. Cotransfection of HepG2 cells with NET and VMAT2 resulted in increased ^131I-MIBG uptake and retention. However, the degree of increase was insufficient to be therapeutically effective in target cells.

Structural determinants specific for retromer protein sorting nexin 5 in regulating subcellular retrograde membrane trafficking

The endosomal trafficking of signaling membrane proteins, such as receptors, transporters and channels, is mediated by the retromer-mediated sorting machinery, composed of a cargo-selective vacuolar protein sorting trimer and a membrane-deforming subunit of sorting nexin proteins. Recent studies have shown that the isoforms, sorting nexin 5 (SNX5) and SNX6, have played distinctive regulatory roles in retrograde membrane trafficking. However, the molecular insight determined functional differences within the proteins remains unclear. We reported that SNX5 and SNX6 had distinct binding affinity to the cargo protein vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2). SNX5, but not SNX6, specifically interacted with VMAT2 through the Phox domain, which contains an alpha-helix binding motif. Using chimeric mutagenesis, we identified that several key residues within this domain were unique in SNX5, but not SNX6, and played an auxiliary role in its binding to VMAT2. Importantly, we generated a set of mutant SNX6, in which the corresponding key residues were mutated to those in SNX5. In addition to the gain in binding affinity to VMAT2, their overexpression functionally rescued the altered retrograde trafficking of VMAT2 induced by siRNA-mediated depletion of SNX5. These data strongly suggest that SNX5 and SNX6 have different functions in retrograde membrane trafficking, which is determined by the different structural elements within the Phox domain of two proteins. Our work provides a new information on the role of SNX5 and SNX6 in the molecular regulation of retrograde membrane trafficking and vesicular membrane targeting in monoamine neurotransmission and neurological diseases.

Histidine decarboxylase and urinary methylimidazoleacetic acid in gastric neuroendocrine cells and tumours

AIM: To study histidine decarboxylase(HDC) expression in normal and neoplastic gastric neuroendocrine cells in relationship to the main histamine metabolite. METHODS: Control tissues from fundus(n = 3) and corpus(n = 3) mucosa of six patients undergoing operations for gastric adenocarcinoma, biopsy and/or gastric surgical specimens from 64 patients with primary gastric neuroendocrine tumours(GNETs), as well as metastases from 22 of these patients, were investigated using conventional immunohistochemistry and double immunofluorescence with commercial antibodies vs vesicular monoamine transporter 2(VMAT-2), HDC and ghrelin. The urinary excretion of the main histamine metabolite methylimidazoleacetic acid(U-Me Im AA) was determined using highperformance liquid chromatography in 27 of the 64 patients.RESULTS: In the gastric mucosa of the control tissues, co-localization studies identified neuroendocrine cells that showed immunoreactivity only to VMAT-2 and others with reactivity only to HDC. A third cellpopulation co-expressed both antigens. There was no co-expression of HDC and ghrelin. Similar results were obtained in the foci of neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia associated with chronic atrophic gastritis type A and also in the tumours. The relative incidence of the three aforementioned markers varied in the tumours that were examined using conventional immunohistochemistry. All of these GNETs revealed both VMAT-2 and HDC immunoreactivity, and their metastases showed an immunohistochemical pattern and frequency similar to that of their primary tumours. In four patients, increased U-Me Im AA excretion was detected, but only two of the patients exhibited related endocrine symptoms. CONCLUSION: Human enterochromaffin-like cells appear to partially co-express VMAT-2 and HDC. Coexpression of VMAT-2 and HDC might be required for increased histamine production in patients with GNETs.