Transport of methylmercury—cysteine conjugate by system L—tpye amino acid transporters and its transportermediated toxicity

摘要

Methylmercury(MeHg) is widely known for its potent neurotoxicity and the causal substance of Minamata disease.Since the conjugates of MeHg with thiol compounds are easily formed in vivo,the metabolism and transport of glutathione,cysteine and their derivatives are important determinants of tissue distribution and elimination of MeHg.It has been proposed that the amino acid transport system L,which transports large neutral amino acids,is one of the major routes for MeHg mobilization.We have identified two isoforms of system L amino acid transporters:L-type amino acid transkporter-1(LAT1) and LAT2 and found that they transport MeHg as a cysteine-conjugate (MeHg-Cys).We have further found that a classical system L inhibitor BCH[2-aminobicyclo-(2,2,1)-heptane-2-carboxylic acid] rescued T24 human bladder carcinoma cells expressing LAT1 form the toxicity of MeHg-Cysl.We concluded that the cytotoxicity of MeHg is mediated by system L transporters.The fact that BCH reduced the toxicity of MeHg-Cys suggests that the high-affinity inhibitors of system L transporters could be a new rationable to avoid MeHg-toxicity.