Interactions of drug transporters with environmental pollutants
Complex mixtures of environmental chemicals are present in the environment including polyaromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls (PBDEs), phthalates, bisphenol-A and pesticides — as well as the products of their maternal metabolism. A significant gap in knowledge has existed regarding the interactions of these environmental chemicals with the repertoire of ATP Binding Cassette (ABC) and Solute Carrier (SLC) transporters important for the protection of embryos.
We work in collaboration with Dr. Geoffrey Chang, here at UCSD, to determine the interactions of these drug transporters with environmental compounds. This work has led to the first co-crystal structure of transporter bound to an environmental compounds (Nicklisch et al, SciAdv 2016). We have also discovered a new class of compounds, which we term Transporter Interfering Compounds (TICs) that can bind and inhibit this transporter. We are investigating how these compounds affect the transporter defense system in different animals.
Our work on this topic:
