Drug, Nucleotide, and Lipid Interactions with P-glycoprotein

Project Summary P-glycoprotein pumps drugs, xenobiotics and nutrients out of cells via a partially characterized ATP-dependent mechanism. Due to the extreme substrate promiscuity of P-gp, it contributes to the disposition of nearly all small molecule drugs and to drug-drug interactions. P-gp may be particularly important in cancer cell drug resistance due to its over expression in several cancers. The aims of this proposal are to fill knowledge gaps in three distinct aspects of P-gp mechanism. Each aim shares the common mechanistic element of conformational dynamics. The first aim is to define the P-gp conformations at low ATP occupancy in order to understand how they control downstream conformational changes that are essential for substrate efflux, and how they are different in the presence vs. the absence of substrates. These conformational differences are hypothesized to be essential for minimizing wasteful expenditure of ATP in the absence of transportable substrate and to control proper conformational access in downstream steps. These differences will be identified by rapid, pre-equilibrium, kinetic methods with state- of-the-art kinetic modeling and Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry (H/DX) with P-gp in lipid nanodiscs. The second aim is to understand the extreme sensitivity of P-gp to its lipid environment. The lipid nanodisc platform provides fine control of the lipid bilayer in which P-gp resides. P-gp will be incorporated in nanodiscs with varying ratios of lipids with different head groups or acyl chains that provide different surface charge of bilayer fluidity. The basal- and substrate dependent ATPase activity in the different lipid environments will be correlated with changes in conformation determined by H/DX. The third aim is to determine the mechanism by which P-gp is able to interact with such a wide range of substrates and inhibitors. Substrate promiscuity is an increasingly appreciated behavior for many proteins throughout biology but the molecular basis is poorly defined. Here, pre equilibrium binding kinetics and single molecule fluorescence methods will be used to compare the distribution of binding parameters in P- gp ensembles vs. single P-gp nanodiscs in order to determine whether P-gp exploits interconverting conformations or persistent distinct conformations to recruit and retain drugs of varying structure.