Structural insights into the benzophenanthridines binding to human glycine transporter GlyT1

We previously identified cysteine 475 as a key residue for the inhibitory action of sanguinarine on the human glycine transporter GlyT1c. To define potential benzophenanthridine binding pocket more closely, we created a structural homology model of GlyT1 and also mutated several amino acids in the vicinity of cysteine 475. Even though this area contains the molecular determinants of the glycine and sodium permeation pathways, and several mutations resulted in an inactive transporter, we found that the mutation of a polar aromatic tyrosine 370 to purely aromatic phenylalanine, but not to an aliphatic leucine, significantly increased the sensitivity of GlyT1 to both sanguinarine and chelerythrine. The reduction of sanguinarine to dihydrosanguinarine completely eliminated the alkaloid's inhibitory potency. Both these results suggest that aromaticity is important in the interaction of benzophenanthridines with GlyT1. Even though tyrosine 370 is part of the conformationaly highly flexible glycine binding site, and is accesible during the transport process from both intra and extracellular sites, the cytoplasmic location of the second alkaloid sensitive residue, cysteine 475, suggests that the benzophenanthridines might attack the area of the GlyT1 intracellular gates.