Maria Babak: Rosemary Cater et al. work on the FLVCR2 protein’s role in choline transport across the blood-brain barrier

Maria Babak, Head of the Drug Discovery Lab at the City University of Hong Kong, shared a post by The Babak Lab on LinkedIn, adding the following:

“Congratulations to Prof. Rosemary Cater, PhD, Dibyanti Mukherjee, Eva Gil-Iturbe and the entire research team on their remarkable publication in Nature!
Their groundbreaking work on the FLVCR2 protein’s role in choline transport across the blood-brain barrier provides crucial insights into brain choline homeostasis and opens new avenues for therapeutic development.

Explore the key points of this research in The Babak Lab most recent review.”

Quoting The Babak Lab’s post:

Scientific Wednesday Unlocking the Brain’s Secrets: How FLVCR2 Transports Essential Choline Across the Blood-Brain Barrier

We are excited to share insights from the groundbreaking article “Structural and molecular basis of choline uptake into the brain by FLVCR2,” written by Rosemary Cater, PhD, Dibyanti Mukherjee, Eva Gil-Iturbe et al., and published in Nature.

This study sheds light on the critical mechanism by which the FLVCR2 protein facilitates the transport of choline across the blood-brain barrier. Here are the key points of this article:

FLVCR2’s Role:
Identified as a crucial transporter in brain endothelial cells, FLVCR2 enables the uptake of choline, an essential nutrient necessary for neurotransmitter synthesis and membrane phospholipid production.
High-Resolution Structure:
Using cryo-electron microscopy, the research reveals the detailed structure of human FLVCR2, highlighting its unique inward-facing conformation and choline-binding site.
Transport Mechanism:
FLVCR2 operates as a proton-coupled transporter, utilizing the electrochemical proton gradient to drive choline uptake. Disruption in FLVCR2 function in mice leads to impaired choline transport and neurodevelopmental issues.
Therapeutic Implications:
Understanding FLVCR2’s structure and function opens avenues for developing therapies targeting choline deficiency-related disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.

In summary, the results of this study reveal how the brain obtains choline and provide molecular-level insights into how FLVCR2 binds choline in an aromatic cage and mediates its uptake. Eventually, this work has a promising potential to provide a novel framework for the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents into the brain, marking a significant step forward in neuroscience research.”

Source: Maria Babak/LinkedIn and The Babak Lab/LinkedIn
OncoDaily