RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Human UGT2B7 Nanodisc
JF Drug Metabolism and Disposition
JO Drug Metab Dispos
FD American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
SP dmd.119.089946
DO 10.1124/dmd.119.089946
A1 Ian Cook
A1 Ana B. Asenjo
A1 Hernando Sosa
A1 Thomas S. Leyh
YR 2019
UL http://dmd.aspetjournals.org/content/early/2019/12/31/dmd.119.089946.abstract
AB The twenty uridine diphosphate glycosyltransferaes (UGTs) encoded in the human genome form an essentail homeostatic network of overlapping catalytic functions that surveil and regulate the activity and clearance of scores of small molecule metabolites. Biochemical and biophysical UGT studies have been considerably hampered by the inability to purify these membrane-bound proteins. Here, using cell-free expression and nanodisc technology, we assemble and purify to homogeneity the first UGT nanodisc - the human UGT2B7•nanodisc. The complex is readily isolated in milligram quantities. It is stable and its initial-rate parameters identical within error to those associated with UGT2B7 in microsomal preparations (i.e., Supersomes). The high purity of the nanodisc preparation simplifies UGT assays, allowing complexities traditionally associated with microsomal assays (latency and the albumin effect) to be circumvented. Each nanodisc is shown to harbor a single UGT2B7 monomer. The methods described herein should be widely applicable to UGTs, and these findings are expected to set the stage for experimentalists to more freely explore the structure, function and biology of this important area of phase II metabolism.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Lack of access to pure, catalytically competent human uridine diphosphate glucuronosyl-transferases (UGTs) has long been an impediment to biochemical and biophysical studies of this disease relevant enzyme family. Here, we demonstrate that this barrier can be removed using nanodisc technology — a human UGT2B7•nanodisc is assembled, purified to homogeneity and shown to have activity comparable to microsomal UGT2B7.