Interaction Characteristics of Nucleoside Analogues with Human Organic Anion Transporter 1 and 3

The present study aimed to investigate the interaction of nucleoside analogs with human organic anion transporter 1 and 3(hOAT1 and hOAT3) that play a primary role in the tubular uptake of endogenous and exogenous organic anions in the kidney. The interactions of ddC, ara-C, ara-A and ara-U with hOAT1 and hOAT3 were examined using MDCK cells stably overexpressing hOAT1 or hOAT3. Among the tested drugs, ddC showed the highest affinity to hOAT1 with $IC_{50}$ values of 5.2 mM, while ara-A, ara-C and ara-U weakly inhibited the cellular uptake of $[^3H]-PAH$ in MDCK-hOAT1 cells at 1 mM. In contrast, all the tested drugs did not have any inhibition effect on the cellular uptake of $[^3H]-estrone$ sulfate in MDCK-hOAT3 cells over the drug concentration of 0.01-2 mM, implying that they might not interact with hOAT3. Taken all together, the present study suggests that hOAT1 could weakly interact with nucleoside analogues such as ddC, ara-C, ara-A and ara-U but the interaction with hOAT3 during the urinary excretion of these nucleoside analogues may be negligible in the kidney.